Aiming for economically beneficial conservation, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar launched three broad initiatives Wednesday for his home turf of the San Luis Valley, including plans to protect vast tracks of pristine private land from development. "This is an opportunity that may not come again to this valley for decades, if not for a century, because you're not going to have a president, with a secretary of the interior, with a governor, with two U.S. senators who embrace these initiatives in this way," Salazar said during a swing that included stops in New Mexico and Texas. Main elements of the emerging plan include: • Creating a Sangre de Cristo National Historic Park. Salazar declared the Trujillo homesteads in the valley a National Historic Landmark on Tuesday. Other sites under consideration for this designation include a communal irrigation ditch at San Luis. • Building a San Luis Valley Trail System along the Rio Grande from Colorado into New Mexico. Land trust leaders are exploring potential easements to keep land private, yet constrain future construction. • Establishing new wildlife areas. Federal biologists have mapped areas on the valley floor and in the Sangre de Cristo mountains that could be managed for ranching and also enable better migration of birds and big game. Salazar and Gov. John Hickenlooper have engaged key landowners in discussions about easements — envisioned as a way to protect 400,000 acres — along with purchases of another 30,000 acres. Besides the government, three owners — billionaire hedge-fund manager Louis Bacon, media mogul Ted Turner and owners of the Taylor Ranch — control most of the land extending south from the existing Great Sand Dunes National Park along the Sangre de Cristo mountains to Santa Fe. The success of those conversations was uncertain, but Turner and Bacon have reputations as far-sighted conservationists. Colorado officials "will do everything we can" to support the initiative, Hickenlooper said...
more
No comments:
Post a Comment