Melinda Beck practices in the areas of conservation, land use, real estate transactions and real property transfers.

On the conservation side, Melinda assists local governments, land trusts and private landowners with purchases and donations of conservation easements throughout the United States and internationally.  In her career, Melinda has completed more than 100 conservation transactions including:

Numerous purchases and bargain sales of conservation easements using funds from local, state and federal funding agencies such as:

∙           Federal Farm and Ranchlands Protection Program (FRPP), administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

∙           North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) grant funds, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)

∙           Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO)

∙           Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW)

∙           Routt County, Douglas County, Boulder County, Park County

∙           Other local, state and federal agencies

Purchases of open space property by Douglas County, Colorado, including Greenland Ranch

Donation of a conservation easement in Costa Rica

Pro bono representation of land trusts including Douglas Land Conservancy (DLC), Colorado Open Lands (COL), the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts (CCLT), Mesa Land Trust, South Metro Land Conservancy (SMLC) and Minnesota Land Trust (MLT)

Melinda also serves as the Assistant Chair of the Habitat and Science Committee for the Conservation Programs Committee (CPC) of Ducks Unlimited (DU).

As a land use attorney, Melinda is a former assistant county attorney for Douglas County, Colorado and assists landowners and developers seeking approvals from local governments, including annexation, rezoning, subdivision and special use permits.  She advises developers on projects that provide for the conservation of land while permitting limited development, including the use of Transferrable Development Rights (TDR) and Purchased Development Rights (PDR).  Melinda has extensive experience in the creation, revision and application of land use regulations throughout Colorado. 

In addition to her land use and conservation law experience, Melinda assists landowners in general real estate transactions such as the purchase and sale of residential, commercial and vacant land and the transfer of mineral and water rights.  She has also represented national homebuilding corporations in the purchase of residential lots, including land banking transactions.