Feds to buy 5,000 acres for conservation

Land includes 4,573 acres in the Canyon of the Ancients

by Herald Staff Report

Article Last Updated; Tuesday, November 17, 2009 3:46PM

Salazar

Ritter

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Monday their agencies are buying seven parcels totaling 5,026 acres in Colorado, Montana and Nevada - including 4,573 in Canyon of the Ancients National Monument - as high-value conservation land.

The acquisitions, private holdings surrounded by or adjacent to federal land, were authorized by the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act of 2000. The act provides funds to buy land in Western states from willing sellers.

The government paid $11.7 million for the seven parcels, it was announced Monday.

The Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service manage land for the Department of the Interior. The U.S. Forest Service is a Department of Agriculture agency.

"These land purchases are a very worthwhile and much-needed investment," Salazar said in a statement. "The properties being brought into public ownership are remarkable for their extraordinary natural, scenic, recreational, cultural and historic value."

Gov. Bill Ritter praised the federal government's decision to purchase the seven parcels.

"Adding nearly 4,600 acres to the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is a tre-mendous accomplishment that will allow us to protect one of Colorado's most treasured natural, cultural and archaeological areas now and in the future," Ritter said in a statement.

"My administration will continue to look to the departments of Agriculture and Interior to bring balance and responsible land-management practices to the multiple uses within the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument."

Vilsack said: "Conservation of forests and wildlands of national significance will provide important environmental and recreation benefits for generations of Americans."

The Canyon of the Ancients purchase represents about 25 percent of private land inside the national monument, and it contains 25 documented sites of cultural importance, including Jackson's Castle and the Skywatcher Site, a 1,000-year-old solstice marker of the ancestral Puebloans. The property is believed to contain more than 700 undocumented sites.

Since 2007, the secretary of the Interior and the secretary of Agriculture have approved $66.8 million worth of acquisitions - 28 parcels containing 16,700 acres - under the land transaction act. Federal officials have recommended that the act, set to expire next year, be extended.

daler@durangoherald.com