Late last year OLT was given a beautiful opportunity to help the San Luis Valley. Ben Eiseman, a local ranch owner and long-time supporter of OLT, passed away. His family and OLT have created the Ben and Mary Eisemen Educational Fund to help local SLV youth learn job skills within the mission areas of OLT. We have several exciting projects for this year. With the help of our French intern, Margaux Tachet, we will be developing a natural resource baseline inventory and monitoring program to track our progress in optimizing the conditions of our lands. Margaux will work with two volunteer youth and several local paid youth alongside our partners, the Kerber Creek Restoration Project, the Rio Grande Watershed Conservation and Education Initiative, Center Conservation District, and the Natural Resources Conservation Authority. The second project within this program will be having local youth man our Trading Post. They will learn customer service, how to handle money, how to be great sales people, how to make good coffee, and other useful life skills. It is our hope to also create an alternative energy education program around our hydroelectric system as well as the solar technology we intend to install to make the Everson Ranch a sustainable endeavor. The Federal government has deemed the SLV one of the solar centers of the country (335 days of sunshine at 7500 feet altitude) and we want our kids to get those jobs when they come! If you have any desire to help with this wonderful program, please let us know. Mentorship is one of the critical keys to a successful future for our kids!