Colorado has acquired the 3,314-acre Tolland Ranch next to Eldora ski area for preservation as new state recreation space in a deal brokered by The Conservation Fund and announced as “an important victory for wildlife habitat and public land access.”
The Conservation Fund, which acquired the private property and is selling it to Colorado to be run as a state wildlife area, declined to name a price, but said the original listing of $9.9 million was a “ballpark.” The state said some of the funds will come from $12.47 habitat stamp fees added to hunting and fishing licenses. Great Outdoors Colorado and its lottery proceeds will also contribute to the purchase.
The private land, owned for four generations by the Toll family, already provided some public access to a mountain bike trail and to the Eldora Nordic ski trails, which will continue. Now the state will add hunting and fishing seasons to the property, which is considered a critical migration corridor for elk herds and is home to rutting, mating and birthing seasons for elk and deer.
With the creek, multiple ponds and forest cover adjacent to the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest, the ranch also sees snowshoe hares, red fox, coyotes, duck varieties, blue grouse and other wildlife. Anglers will have access to miles of “excellent” brook, brown and rainbow trout fishing, state officials said.
“If it was not acquired by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, with our assistance, you would have seen a number of homes built in the valley, very close to the iconic yellow schoolhouse that many people are fond of,” said Justin Spring, vice president and Colorado state director at The Conservation Fund. “You would have lost the opportunity, really, to create a new public amenity with a state wildlife area, too.”
The Toll family owned and conserved the property since 1893. At one point, Spring said, a Toll matriarch considered and rejected a Denver Water proposal for a dam and reservoir in the valley the creek runs through. The agencies that worked with the Tolls 10 years ago to create conservation easements for bike and ski trail access stayed in touch, with preservation in mind, Spring said.
“Those of us working in the field, working on these real estate transactions, are always thinking about how we balance wildlife habitat protection, which is needed more and more as humans put more pressure on habitat, and at the same time, so many Coloradans are arguably loving the land to death,” Spring said. “We need more places to play. And so this is a good project that does both those things.”