National Park Service
The Sangre de Cristo Mountains, seen here from the Great Sand Dunes National Park, are the backbone of a proposed conservation area announced Friday with a billionaire's pledge to protect 90,000 acres from development.
A billionaire hedge-fund manager on Friday pledged to protect 90,000 acres of his Colorado ranch from further development as part of a much larger planned conservation area. The Obama administration said it would be the "largest single conservation easement" ever provided to the federal government.
The easement, which would include tax benefits for New York-based Louis Bacon, provides "the foundation for the proposed new Sangre de Cristo Conservation Area," the Interior Department announced.
Should the conservation area happen, Bacon said Friday, "I will place approximately 90,000 currently unprotected acres of the Blanca portion of Trinchera Ranch into a conservation easement."
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who grew up in the area and announced the deal with Bacon at his side, said the ranch "is in one of the most beautiful places in the country" -- and home to three peaks above 14,000 feet that are in the center of the longest U.S. mountain chain.
Conserving the land will protect the region's water and wildlife, Salazar told reporters. The region is used as a corridor by bison, cougars, black bears, bighorn sheep, elk and deer, and borders the Great Sand Dunes National Park.
The proposed conservation area -- which would be much larger than Bacon's ranch -- "remains largely unchanged and is a place where wildlife can migrate between the high prairies of eastern New Mexico and the high mountain valleys of central Colorado," an Interior team that scouted the area last year reported.
Department of Interior
The circled area of interest represents the 3,000,000 acres studied by the Interior Department for the Sangre de Cristo Conservation Area.
"Maintaining such an open corridor is important for species survival and overall ecosystem health," the team added. "There are few other places in the southwestern United States where such an open and unchanged landscape exists."
Bacon, ranked by Forbes as the 312th richest American with a $1.4 billion estimated net worth, bought the 172,000-acre Trinchera Ranch from the family of billionaire Malcolm Forbes in 2007 for $175 million -- which media reports at the time called the most expensive single property ever sold in the U.S.
The Forbes family had earlier placed more than 80,000 acres of the ranch in a conservation easement.
Easements allow continued ranching and hunting but no construction of significant structures. They also provide tax incentives to property owners.
"The conservation incentives are incredibly efficient ways of conserving land," Greg Yankee, policy director for the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts, told msnbc.com.
Colorado grants a maximum $375,000 tax credit for any easement, he added, and a property owner who meets all the criteria could also list the easement as a federal income tax deduction.
The Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for how much Bacon could expect.
Billionaire Ted Turner, founder of CNN, owns the largest parcel inside the proposed conservation area -- the 600,000-acre Vermejo Ranch.
Salazar told the Denver Post that while he's had conversations with Turner, there were no specific proposals in the works.
"It'll happen over the next several years," Salazar said of the larger conservation area. "It's important that, as the conservation efforts move forward, that it be done with full cognizance of the need to honor water rights and property rights on the valley floor."
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whoa an environmentalist that actually puts his money were his mouth is? I don't believe it. now if the "save the rainforest" people would take a clue they could use 1/7th of the money they've spent donating to democrats they could buy the rain forest and protect it forever.
I guess I was wrong. after re-reading the article, he's just putting the easement in for tax credits. big deal, this isn't a story.
Sarah Palin can see these 90,000 Acres from her Kitchen Window.
You BetCha......Fer Sure.
Quid_pro_quo is Latin meaning "This for That". A typical Republican TeaBilly Conservative T attic.
You BetCha.....Fer Sure.
How in the hell are billionaires allowed to own these majestic landscapes in the first place ? They were once owned by all the people until the Western Europeans stole it from the American Indian who considered all land and wild life as a gift from the Great Spirit .Now any slimy denizen from the depths of Hell can simply buy anything or anybody with impunity..Even our Congress and Presidency are for sale..Sad ! This kinda situation, philathantropic on the surface must drive Donald Trump crazy...He probably would have developed it into a paradise for people with big bucks as a resort, and mined the rest of it..
Don't worry the American Indians have evened the score with white Europeans by introducing them to tobacco
I've walked this area, at Great Sand Dunes National Monument.
This guy has done a great thing for his country.
I'll withhold the comparisons to how other billionaires choose to spend their money.
When you see this good of a deed, the bad deeds speak for themselves. (Donald lying-birther Trump, Sheldon my-money's-more-important-than-you-vote Adelson)
to make progress- while I agree with you about the great thing that he did for our country, I don' t like the dig you put in about Trump and Adelson. Don' t you Liberal Leftys have George Soros ?? Isn' t your inept leader O-bumbles kissing every ass in Hollywood ?? Isn' t he sucking up to the rich business elite people in NYC at night while he curses them during the day ??
Regarding the birther issue - Google "Barry Soetoro" A.K.A. Barack Obama -
Snopes said some articles are false, but there are many others and a whole lot of still unanswered questions about Obama.
Why make Billions when you can make Thousands............mooowhawha.......Lol
What is the purpose of government according to the Founding Fathers? Dr. Roger Pilon, Senior Fellow at
CATO Institute, tackles this important question in Limiting Leviathan, a provocative new book available
soon from Public Interest Institute.
Pilon explains that the Founders designed the law of the land — the Constitution — to establish a federal
state with strictly limited powers. They sought to circumscribe carefully the powers of the new government. Yet, ironically, with the rise of today's welfare and regulatory state, the 20th century has rightly
been called "the century of government" in America. Is this what the Founder's had in mind?
Elected leaders have lost sight of Thomas Jefferson’s original political vision of individual liberty,
personal responsibility, and limited government. This is the vision of the Declaration of Independence,
according to which the main purpose of government is to secure the rights of its citizens to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. Furthermore, insist the Founders, this important but restricted task is
subject to the consent of the governed. Neglecting this vision, we have witnessed the growth of a federal
state which closely resembles the threatening beast, Leviathan, about which the Founders warned us.
The rise of big government today and the loss of personal liberty would distress the Founders. Pilon
makes the startling claim that, "...the most cursory reading of the writings of the [Founders'] day makes it
plain that the Founders intended nothing like our present American leviathan." To understand their
original vision for America, he suggests, we must rediscover and apply the principles of our founding
documents in our day as they would.
The American Revolution posed a problem for the Founders. When they severed their ties with the
British Empire, they had to explain why the new government they formed deserved to be obeyed by
citizens. In the Declaration, they pointed to a higher "natural law" of right and wrong, revealed by
"Nature and Nature’s God" which supplies the standard by which to judge all laws made by government.
Natural law limits the range of what is acceptable for a government to do. Through reason, they argued,
we discover that all people are created equal with the same rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. When a government violates these rights of the people, "...it is their right, it is their duty, to
throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."
Natural rights are granted by God, not the government. People entrust their rights to the protection of
government, which rules by their consent. Only governments which protect these natural rights to life,
liberty, and the free pursuit of happiness deserve the obedience of its citizens. Government's purpose,
then, is to serve the people as the guardian of their rights (and not the other way around as under King
George.) you need to tell the Feds: No thank you.. get out and stay out of our States pass Laws or what ever it takes.. its a monster and its at your door!
Any land protected from development is a good thing. As a conservative I have to agree that most Repubs are against protecting the land as are capitalists (not always the same thing). As a soon to be overpoputalated country (thanks to huge birth rates from certain groups) we need open land for our mental health. Although he did this for possible questionable reasons it is a good start. Maybe Turner will do something as he is a HUGE landowner and at his age what does he really need it for. (other than the obvious fact that it is his and has a right to do as he pleases).
to sarg - I am one of the 99%, a life long Republican and I believe the ONLY way to national prosperity is Capitalism. Yet we can find common ground on this issue.
A person does not have to be rich to help wildlife and preserve our environment. #1 recycle plastic whenever possible. Anyone can make a Backyard Wildlife Habitat right where they live. All it takes is food, water, shelter and a place to raise their young. The American Wildlife Federation is the best place to look for advice on how to do it.
Let' s think of the animals instead of venting your anger against everyone who does not fit your definition of a human being !
Conservation does not mean preservation.
This is not saving wildlife. When the wildlife is gone, so will be the land. "no construction of significant structure." What the hell does that mean? Very vague. Oh yeah, and when they say efficient, efficient for whom?
Any bet da Republican TeaBilly Conservatives are Brainstoming how they can get a hold of this land and Milk every last Mineral, Oil, and Resource out of this Land for Profit?
Do ya think Mitt "Profits Over People" Romney got a "Boehner" when he found out about this?
You BetCha....Fer Sure.
Heck if the billionaire would let me move there I would help protect the land and animals there from poachers and land destroyers with my life if I had too. I have a thing for the beauty of nature. I have been through Colorado many times and it is surrounded by the beauty of nature.
to jstdafacts - read my post above to sarg and stop being such an a--hole !
hate to tell you all, but this is where obama is going to put the 800,000 mexicans.
his hope and change is happening, to bad it couldn't happen to the Americans.
start making out those new foodstamp cards.
Oh God, I hadn't thought about that.
I wonder if there is oil under there, does anyone know?
People here allways have to find evil in every good deed. He bought it and now can control the restoration. He didnt have to do this, he could have invested in it and sat on it doing nothing. It is refreshing to see someone with money do good with it.
Sometimes you need to read between the lines, because they miss allot of sentences.
Jealousy is an ugly emotion. Envy isn't far behind. It seems to me there is a lot of that in some of these comments.
Good for him. I see a lot of people talking about the tax breaks he gets for doing this, but the bottom line is that he did it. In a time where people bulldoze anything down to make a buck it is refreshing to see someone set aside such a large peice of land to preserve it for all time.
How can anyone get that rich ? except for a few like bill gate, they either steal it or inherit it..
Wealth should be shared for the well being of society...Nobody needs billions to be happy and when they make donations it is for tax breaks which does not help the country ! these people need to be taxed big time so the infrastructures can be repaired, and americans can get health care and affordable education.
First of of all Salazar is not from this area, he is from further south. This land will be with Forbes place so Forbes's Gangster cowboys can run Elk off of PUBLIC land onto their land so they can have $5000.00 dollar a shot, to DRIVE out shoot an Elk load it and drive out. They call that hunting Part of the Ranch along hwy 160 has a 8 ft. electric fence around it. Yes developers wont build, this will just help a few RICH people and not the public.
yes the land isn't going to be used today, he's not giving the land to anybody, it's just an easement, these people have so much money, that setting this land aside for non developement, is great, but i quarantee that it is based on paying less taxes.
The demonrats will take control of it and start selling it to build a new slum filled with there welfare and food stamp scum that obama call voters.
The easement is a good thing, and the fact that it benefits the wealthy man who made it doesn't bother me in the least. Conservation easements are one of the best and most effective means of land preservation, and this one has been placed in one of the most beautiful and ecologically significant areas in the United States.
Kudos to everyone involved, most especially the landowner!
I wish a rich person would turn Detroit into something like this.