Dunes closer to becoming national park/ Nature Conservancy will buy

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jan 31, 2002 | by Tom Ragan

The Great Sand Dunes National Monument and Preserve is one step closer to becoming Colorado's fourth national park after The Nature Conservancy struck a deal Wednesday to buy the nearby Baca Ranch.

The conservation group will pay $31.28 million for the 151-square- mile property, an acquisition that was necessary because of the vast amount of water below that helps keep the sand dunes intact.

The purchase, which could occur as early as spring and as late as 2003, will protect the popular recreation area and one of the largest unfragmented landscapes in the state until the federal government can buy it back from the conservancy.

The decades-long struggle over the ranch, with its 1,500-foot deep aquifer, is symbolic and symptomatic of a growing West. It pitted traditional San Luis Valley farmers who relied on the water for their crops against out-of-town developers who coveted the thousands of acre-feet of water.

In the fall of 2000, Congress passed a law authorizing the creation of a national park, but it was contingent on the purchase of the Baca Ranch, which is home to elk, coyotes and bighorn sheep.

"This project represents conservation and partnership at a truly heroic scale," said Steve McCormick, the conservancy's president and CEO. " ... It brought together an unprecedented coalition of local, state and federal partners, all aligned with the same goal in mind: the conservation of this awe-inspiring place."

Jim Petterson, a spokesman for the conservancy, said once the sand dunes become a national park, Coloradans will have unfettered access to Kit Carson and Challenger Point, both Fourteeners.

"That's something nobody ever really realizes," Petterson said. "But that's what a national park will bring and with this purchase, we're right on track."

But until 2005, the time at which the government is expected to buy back the land, the conservancy will have a lot of financial worries hanging over it, Petterson said. Loans from private groups that made the purchase possible, he said, will have to be paid back.

And in the interim, the ranch will be owned by three entities: The Nature Conservancy, the state and the U.S. Department of Interior. All three groups helped purchase the land in one form or another, but it was the Nature Conservancy, in Petterson's words, "who signed on the dotted line."

Great Outdoors Colorado Trust Fund, for example, loaned The Nature Conservancy $3 million, while the David and Lucile Packard Foundation loaned it $7 million.

The Colorado State Land Board will pay $5 million, and the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund has appropriated $10.2 million toward the purchase.

Yale University, one of the principal investors in the partnership that owns the ranch, may donate up to $6 million in profits from the sale.

The rest of the money came from the conservancy's fund-raising efforts.

"There's the understanding that the federal government will allocate money as time goes on," said Carol Sperling, a spokeswoman for the national monument. "But ... it could be a long, drawn out deal. Until 100 percent of the property is owned by the federal government, it won't change."

When it becomes the state's fourth national park, Sperling said, "People (will) make it their destination rather than just a quick place to stop through on business."

The state's other national parks: Rocky Mountain, Mesa Verde and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Colorado's sand dunes

The Great Sand Dunes National Monument and Preserve is chiefly known for its tan-colored dunes, which rise 750 feet and are considered North America's tallest.

The dunes cover 39 square miles in the San Luis Valley.

The site became a national monument in 1932. On Nov. 22, 2000, President Bill Clinton signed The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Act, legislation authorizing creation of a national park.

It's one of the most significant natural areas in the western United States and was one of the last chances to protect a large scale ecological system and keep it intact.