Colorado committee recommends four Parks and Wildlife land transactions
The recommendations include a $6.0675 million expansion of Lahara Reservoir State Wildlife Area and three smaller wildlife and park projects.
A Colorado legislative capital committee recommended four Colorado Parks and Wildlife land transactions Sept. 15, including a proposed $6.0675 million acquisition that would add 2,427 acres to the Lahara Reservoir State Wildlife Area in Conejos County.
The acquisition would expand the wildlife area from about 700 acres of existing Parks and Wildlife-controlled land to more than 3,000 acres, according to the committee’s recording. The agency told the committee that public hunting, fishing, camping and wildlife viewing would continue. Seasonal grazing would be used to improve and maintain grass conditions in wetland habitat, the agency said.
The land has been owned by the Colorado State Land Board since 1881 and leased by Parks and Wildlife for decades, the presentation said. Ownership would give the agency direct control of the reservoir and surrounding basin.
The committee also recommended:
- A $230,000 purchase of a 13.31-acre parcel next to Fisher’s Peak State Park in southern Colorado. Parks and Wildlife said the parcel would allow it to design and build an entrance gate connected to an existing frontage road off Interstate 25.
- A no-cost federal transfer of 640 acres in Weld County to create the Paloma Prairie State Wildlife Area. The agency said the property would provide small-game and deer hunting opportunities and could be grazed every couple of years to improve habitat. Demolishing a dilapidated building was estimated at about $200,000.
- A $7,500 perpetual irrigation-water conveyance easement serving the Cottonwood State Wildlife Area in Morgan County. The easement would allow the agency to move irrigation water to the wildlife area while replacing an open ditch that runs through a center-pivot field and can damage crops on adjoining private land.
The recommendations do not complete the acquisitions. Parks and Wildlife’s Sept. 2-3 commission materials list “Real Estate Projects” as consent-agenda item 23.10 but do not identify these four properties or document their approval.