For nearly a decade, conservation groups, politicians and leaders in Colorado’s San Luis Valley have worked with state officials to execute a deal that would preserve access to tens of thousands of acres of public land along the western flank of the valley.
But the deal to sell the 45,952-acre La Jara State Trust Land property in Conejos County to federal and state land managers is now experiencing unexpected pushback from the State Land Board. Its commissioners are expected to vote on the proposal, which has been in the works since 2017, at their meeting Thursday. Though the deal has garnered a wide spectrum of support, land board commissioners in recent months have requested information about alternatives to the sale.
The questioning caught proponents by surprise.
“We had pretty much put it in our rearview mirror, because it looked like a done deal,” said Conejos County Commissioner Mitchell Jarvies.
The board initiated the process of selling the land because it was not making enough money for the agency. Selling the southern Colorado property to land management agencies — with pieces going to the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and Colorado Parks and Wildlife — would allow the board to pursue better investments while also cementing long-term public access to the land, which locals use for cattle grazing, hiking, fishing and hunting.
At the board’s June meeting, the agency’s staff recommended the deal and a majority of commissioners voted in support of moving forward with it.
Since then, however, board commissioners have requested more information and asked staff members to compile alternative plans for the land. Staff put together two alternative plans and is no longer making a recommendation to the board.
“While it is common for staff to provide recommendations when seeking Board decisions, this is a unique situation,” Colorado State Land Board spokesperson Emily Barbo wrote in an email. “It’s not often that the State Land Board considers disposal of a property like La Jara, given its large size and its location. The Board (members) will make their decision per their responsibility and authority to act in the best interests of our beneficiaries.”
The addition of alternate plans surprised those who have been working for years on the deal. If the board cans the deal, San Luis Valley residents worry that the State Land Board could use the land in a way that restricts access. Or worse, sell the land to a private buyer.
People in the valley rely on the land for subsistence hunting and fishing as well as firewood, Jarvies said. It also draws hunters and their dollars to the rural area, which includes some of the poorest counties in the state.
“The unknown is what scares people,” he said.
A deal years in the making
The State Land Board owns 2.8 million acres of land in Colorado and manages it to earn money for the state’s public school system. It leases the land to businesses for agriculture, mining, oil and gas development, and renewable energy projects. It also allows varying levels of public recreation access.
The board aims for its land holdings to make revenue equal to at least 1.5% of the land’s value. According to board documents, the La Jara property’s revenue in recent years amounted to 0.6% of its value. The parcel’s remote location also made it difficult to manage, the documents state.
So the board began exploring options for the parcel — its largest single landholding in southwest Colorado. The plan the agency developed since then includes selling 43,526 acres to the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management for $43.5 million. Another 2,427 acres around La Jara Reservoir would be sold to Colorado Parks and Wildlife for $6.1 million. The sales would be at market value for the land.
Since 2017, a wide range of Colorado agencies, nonprofit groups and local residents have signed on in support of the sale. Supporters include the state Department of Natural Resources, the Conejos County commissioners, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, San Luis Valley Outdoors and the Colorado Wildlife Federation.
The land is tucked in the foothills of the San Juan Mountains — west of U.S. 285 between Alamosa and Antonito — and is primarily surrounded by BLM and Forest Service land. The parcel includes 30 miles of streams and provides important wildlife habitat.
Over the last week, former U.S. Rep. John Salazar’s phone lit up as word spread through the valley that the board was considering other options besides the sale.
“Everyone that I know of here in the valley supported that transaction,” said Salazar, also a former state agriculture commissioner who farms and ranches in the valley.
On Monday, The Denver Post published an opinion piece urging the board to approve the deal that Salazar wrote with his brother, Ken, a former U.S. senator and Interior secretary.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet helped secure funding from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund to pay for the purchase by the Forest Service and BLM. That money would likely be forfeited if the deal does not go through.
“Walking away from the project now, and leaving over $40 million in precious conservation funding on the table, is a mistake,” Bennet said in a statement to The Post.
In June, Gov. Jared Polis wrote a letter to the BLM’s Colorado director in support of the deal. He wrote that the state had already invested money in the project and urged that the government “remain committed to seeing this project through,” according to a copy of the letter provided to The Post.
“The state strongly supports this acquisition as a meaningful advancement in our goals of habitat connectivity, heritage preservation and equitable public access to the outdoors,” he wrote in the June 18 letter.
On Monday, a spokeswoman for Polis would not answer whether the governor still supported the deal.
“The State Land Board is an independent board and the Governor respects their ability to weigh this opportunity to protect access to public lands in Colorado, maximize asset allocation, and work with federal partners where it benefits Colorado,” spokeswoman Shelby Wieman wrote in a statement.
The five State Land Board commissioners who will vote on the deal are volunteers appointed by the governor and approved by the legislature. Polis appointed all five current commissioners, all of whom began their terms after the agency began exploring selling the La Jara parcel. Two commissioners began their terms in July and Polis hired a new director for the agency in June.
None of the commissioners live in the San Luis Valley and instead are from combinations of Denver, Boulder, Summit, Eagle, Grand and Pitkin counties, according to the board’s website.
Vote planned this week
At the board’s direction, State Land Board staff compiled two alternatives to the proposed sale. One would keep the land and attempt to increase the revenue generated from it. The other would sell only the smaller parcel to CPW, while maintaining ownership of the land slated for sale to the federal government.
During the June meeting, board members did not express any criticisms about the proposed deal. But ahead of Thursday’s meeting, agency staff members listed pros and cons of each option in the information packet.
The document lists uncertainty about the direction and stability of the Forest Service and the BLM under the Trump administration as a disadvantage to the deal. Staff cited recent attempts to sell federal public lands and efforts by the administration to reduce regulations that protect conservation.
The exploration of alternatives has left proponents of the deal uneasy.
Jarvies said nobody from the state agency has contacted him or other local leaders about concerns they might have with the original deal. He and the two other Conejos County commissioners will make the 4.5-hour drive to Denver for the board’s meeting on Thursday, which begins at 8 a.m.
Jarvies worries that, once again, the desires of the rural and poor communities in the valley will be sidelined.
“These rural areas are so often the redheaded stepchild,” he said.
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