The Southern Plains Land Trust (SPLT) creates and protects a network of shortgrass prairie preserves, which ensure a future for all native animals and plants. SPLT accomplishes this goal by purchasing lands in the southern Great Plains. To further this goal we encourage our preserve neighbors, whether private or governmental, to respect the plains ecology and learn to live in harmony with it. SPLT celebrated the purchase of the first block of our reserve network in November 1998: a 1,280-acre parcel in Baca County, Colorado three miles north of the Comanche National Grassland. We named this property the Fresh Tracks Nature Preserve to acknowledge the welcome sight of native animal tracks on the land and to signify a new path toward land management in the Southern Plains, one where wildlife is respected for its own intrinsic value. We have since added multiple preserves to our network in southeastern Colorado, for a total of over 26,000 acres. SPLT is certified by the State of Colorado to hold conservation easements, is registered with the State of New Mexico, and is a member of the Land Trust Alliance and the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts.