Essay by Dr. Rick Knight and Erik L. Glenn

These prescient words associated with Abraham Lincoln came at a decisive time in our nation’s history, now celebrating 250 years since its founding. In the summer of 1864, the United States was tearing itself apart. The Civil War was at its bloodiest, the nation’s future was uncertain, and Lincoln was facing a brutal re-election campaign. Human structures – governments, laws, and policies – were collapsing or being rewritten.

Lincoln was reminding all Americans that human conflicts are transient, but the Earth will endure.

The quote captures the monumental context of the Civil War and a radical shift in how the United States viewed its natural landscape. It also puts on full display Lincoln’s commitment to all Americans, and his recognition that land, and the agrarians who tend it, are a bedrock of Democracy.

One might ask, what “the land remains” has to do with us in this urban 21^st Century? The answer lies not with an institution, but with the people who rise before dawn to feed cattle, plant crops, mend fence, and irrigate hay meadows. These are the farm and ranch families, who choose year after year and generation after generation, to keep their land in agriculture. But, increasingly, this work and commitment to the land cannot be done in isolation. It takes partnerships and collaboration. The Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust (CCALT) was created by America’s first state-wide cattlemen’s organization and became the first state-wide agriculturally focused land trust. Approaching 900,000 acres conserved with hundreds of Colorado’s agricultural families, CCALT has become a key partner to farm and ranch families. Working together to keep the working lands in working hands. CCALT and our rural and supporting urban partners embody Lincoln’s concept of permanence.

True, no one should be faulted for poking fun at the word “permanent” (in easement language that translates as “perpetuity”). After all, what is permanent over the long arc of human history? But to scoff at the concept of forever is to miss what these families are actually doing when they partner with CCALT. Rather than see their land divided into more rural sprawl, by putting their land in an easement with CCALT they have put a stake in the ground that reads, “This land will produce food” – not for one season, but for as long as the land endures.

This is not a decision made lightly, nor for themselves alone. It is a private choice, made as a gift, gratis, to all Americans. It is stewarded lands that serve as the foundation for our health, our happiness, and, directly or indirectly, for all of our economies. One might ask, do agrarians steward their lands? Consider this, in 2024 agriculturists spent nearly half a billion dollars improving the health of their lands (Western Landowners Alliance) Lincoln’s concept underlying “the land remains” was a radical declaration to the world that land will endure, in spite of human foibles. And the families who tend it are authentic during these increasingly synthetic (think AI) times.