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City buys 223 acres in Horse Gulch
$234K from lottery funds help pay for land that will be open space
Herald Staff Writer
About 25 percent of the Colorado Lottery's budget is dedicated to funding outdoor conservation projects and education.
Great Outdoors Colorado recently awarded Durango $234,500 in lottery funds to pay for the parcel, known as the Crader property, located on the eastern ridge of Horse Gulch and visible from town. The city will be responsible to pay a balance of $448,000 for the land.
The ever-growing trail network at the 1,500-acre Horse Gulch area is a popular destination for hikers and mountain bikers. The area also is considered native habitat for mountain lions, black bears, wild turkeys, deer and elk.
The parcel does not contain many trails but Kevin Hall, development director for Durango's parks, open space and trails, said the project was a good starting point for the city to begin preserving more land in Horse Gulch. A different parcel was purchased last month, but the gears for the purchase of the Crader land were spinning earlier.
The purchase has its roots in the 1990s, when a rush of new residents began requesting more trail systems, Hall said, and Fort Lewis College began expanding its research operations into the surrounding landscape. In 1997, the Horse Gulch area was first identified as an open-space priority in the city's Comprehensive Plan and popped up again in the 2001 Open Space Master Plan.
Hall said a recent survey of residents showed 75 percent support for preserving land in Horse Gulch.
"This has been a consistent desire in the community over time. There haven't been a lot of opportunities to permanently protect this land until recently," he said.
In May, the city acquired a one-third interest in a 240-acre parcel in Horse Gulch from the First Presbyterian Church of Durango. The tract is now owned by the city of Durango, La Plata County and the Fort Lewis College Foundation. City Manager Ron LeBlanc said holding the title to that parcel puts the city in a better position for future Horse Gulch land negotiations.
About 25 percent of the Colorado Lottery's budget is dedicated to funding outdoor conservation projects and education. About $53.1 million went to Great Outdoors Colorado last year, to help fund 55 projects in 36 communities, for a total of 43,617 acres.
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