Sangre de Cristo wildlife corridor grows as Billionaire finalizes deal

Federal wildlife officials and billionaire conservationist Louis Bacon on Tuesday finalized a deal bringing the land preserved from development on the east side of Colorado's San Luis Valley to 166,000 acres — grassland, forests and tundra between Great Sand Dunes National Park and La Veta Pass. This helps build the emerging Sangre de Cristo Conservation Area, which is emerging as one of the world's longest protected wildlife corridors, through Colorado and New Mexico. Bacon and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials met near Fort Garland at the base of Blanca Peak and announced completion of an easement covering 90,000 acres, adding to 76,000 acres declared off-limts to development earlier this year. It is the agency's largest donated conservation easement. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar hailed the deal as embodying a new era of conservation where private landowners play a lead role protecting treasured landscapes...more