With a new managerial arrangement expected to be finalized next month, it appears that at least one of six leases at the Old Fort campus in Hesperus won’t be renewed next year.
Pending approval of a beneficiary use agreement with the state, Fort Lewis College may gain control of 6,300 acres of state land at the Old Fort starting July 1. But the school has reservations about extending a contract for ElkQuest, an elk hunting operation and former research institute that leases about 1,500 acres on the Hesperus property.
Barry Dyar owns ElkQuest as well as Mad Hatter Ranch, an elk-breeding ranch in Oxford. He established the now-defunct Elk Research Institute on the Hesperus property in 2003 with the intent of breeding a strain of elk resistant to chronic wasting disease, an illness that causes slow starvation in elk, deer and moose.
Dyar subleased the land for the first seven years on Colorado State University’s allotment. Because the institute’s work was deemed educational, Dyar could use the land for free.
But he faced scrutiny over the years, accused of using research as a facade for an expensive private hunting ground.
“The college has express concerns over the Elk Research Institute,” Fort Lewis College spokesperson Mitch Davis said. “We want to know what, if any, research has been done.”
Dyar has maintained that selling hunting trips was necessary to sustain the nonprofit institute, and that the research institute was successful in breeding resistant or partially resistant animals. The research center was closed after reaching its goal, Dyar said, leaving ElkQuest, the hunting business.
When CSU closed its San Juan Basin Research Center in 2010 after state funding cuts, Dyar was allowed to stay on the land, but for a $3,000 annual grazing lease.
Dyar appealed to the state land board in February to extend his lease for another 10 years. In statements to the board, Dyar argued the college already has more property than it can manage, and offered to pay $10 an acre for his lease, which is above market value.
“I will probably be shutting down the operation,” Dyar told The Durango Herald. “I’m actively looking at all options. They (Fort Lewis) want it for educational purposes, and my operation isn’t fitting in with their philosophy of how to use the property. Frankly, I don’t understand it.”
In late March, Dyar placed his ElkQuest business and Hesperus residence at Old Fort on the market for $3.7 million.
jpace@durangoherald.com