Big game habitat and the view of Lone Cone Peak will be protected thanks to a grant from Great Outdoors Colorado.
The GOCO board has awarded a $208,500 grant to the Montezuma County Land Conservancy to preserve a 960-acre private ranch in the Groundhog Glade region of Dolores County.
The easement is expected to take a year to complete, with a portion of the grant going to landowners, and the remainder paying for transaction costs.
The property contains important elk habitat and wildlife migration corridors and includes the Disappointment Creek headwaters and a mile of Nash Creek.
It located adjacent to the 4,199-acre Groundhog Ranch and borders the San Juan National Forest and Lone Cone State Wildlife Area.
Grazing uses will be protected on the ranch, as well as managed hunting.
“It’s a special piece of high-elevation land with a lot of biodiversity,” said MLC executive director Jon Leibowitz. “The area is also mapped habitat for the endangered lynx between the Lizardhead Wilderness Area and the Groundhog-Glade region.”
The conservation easement will build on previous GOCO investments in Dolores County, adding to more than 27,000 acres GOCO has helped to preserve.
The grant, along with 37 others awarded this month, supports Gov. John Hickenlooper’s Colorado Beautiful initiative, which fills gaps in connectivity for trails and open spaces.
“It’s a very competitive process, so we feel lucky to have been chosen,” Leibowitz said. “The landowners want to see it protected as open space, and it will greatly protect the viewshed looking north from Groundhog Reservoir.”
GOCO invests a portion of Colorado Lottery proceeds for conservation efforts. Created when voters approved a Constitutional Amendment in 1992, GOCO has funded more that 4,500 projects in urban and rural areas in all 64 counties without any tax dollar support.
jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com