Billionaire's land donation may spur preserve

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced recently a record-breaking donation from billionaire Louis Bacon that could jump-start a proposed government conservation project. Bacon, the founder of the $15 billion hedge fund group called Moore Capital Management, said he intends to place about 90,000 acres of unprotected land on the Blanca portion of his Trinchera Ranch in southern Colorado into a conservation easement with the government. It would be the largest single conservation easement ever donated to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The land is in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains bordering the San Luis Valley and includes high desert shrubs, mountain grassland, alpine forest and the 14,345-foot Blanca Peak. The remaining portion of the 172,000-acre Trinchera Ranch is already protected by an easement administered by Colorado Open Lands. Easements do not transfer ownership of the land but restrict development by the landowner, who is eligible for a number of tax incentives. Bacon's donation will lay the foundation for the government's proposed Sangre de Cristo Conservation Area. In an email, Fish and Wildlife Service representatives said that if the plan moves forward, the conservation area will expand into Northern New Mexico. The government will work to persuade other private landowners in the area, such as billionaire Ted Turner, to form partnerships with the government similar to Bacon's...more