Colorado will sell nearly 46,000 acres of pristine wilderness it has held since statehood in a deal long sought by communities in the San Luis Valley — despite worries voiced by State Land Board commissioners Thursday about the future of federal public land management.
The board, in a 4-1 vote, approved the $49.6-million sale of the La Jara State Trust Land property in Conejos County, with most of it going to the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management and the rest to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
owns 2.8 million acres of land in Colorado and manages it to earn money for the state’s public school system. It began considering selling the La Jara property in 2017 because it was not generating enough revenue. Selling the property would allow the board to invest the proceeds in other, more lucrative land.
After nearly a decade of work, the deal to sell the 45,952 acres to the three agencies seemed rock solid, proponents of the sale have said.
But some members of the State Land Board commission in recent months became concerned about selling the vast majority of the land to federal agencies under the Trump administration, which has repeatedly weakened conservation rules and hollowed out agency staff. Members of the Republican-majority Congress this year have also attempted to sell federal public lands in the West but were defeated amid bipartisan backlash.
The board’s commissioners worried that selling the land to federal agencies could open it to the whims of the administration, while maintaining state ownership would protect it.
“We were all-in until the world went nuts,” said Commissioner Christine Scanlan, who expressed concerns about federal management.
She ultimately voted in support of the sale, saying beforehand: “We are taking a risk in selling it to the federal government in the sense that these threats to public lands are out there and they’re real and they’re not going to go away.”
The parcel 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.
The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management will purchase 43,526 acres with $43.5 million appropriated through the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. The remaining 2,427 acres, around La Jara Reservoir, will be sold to Colorado Parks and Wildlife for $6.1 million.
The early afternoon vote to continue with the sale followed hours of public comment — all in support of the deal. Residents of the valley, the local heads of the Forest Service and the BLM, and conservation organizations testified.
All three drove to Denver to urge the board to support the project, saying it had widespread backing in the San Luis Valley. The deal would protect access to the land that people rely on for hunting, fishing, grazing, firewood and recreation, said Commissioner Mitchell Jarvies. The valley community knows best what to do with the land it relies on, he said.
“This is probably the biggest collaboration for a project that I’ve been a part of in my 15 years as a county commissioner,” he said.
Ken Salazar, a former U.S. senator and Interior secretary who lives in the valley, compared the benefits of selling the land to the creation of , which protected important ecosystems and spurred tourism for the valley.
“This is the project of the 21st century for the San Luis Valley,” he said at the meeting Thursday.
Representatives from conservation groups said they shared commissioners’ concerns about the Trump administration’s public lands policy. However, they said, support from regional agency leaders as well as local land management plans will help safeguard the property from interference.
“We must always keep in mind that landscape conservation and long-term public lands management is at a different timescale than political administrations,” said Jordan Williams, the Colorado regional representative for the .
Lands purchased through the Land and Water Conservation Fund have greater protections from future sale by the federal government, Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper wrote Wednesday in a joint letter to the board’s commissioners, urging them to approve the deal.
“Colorado’s Congressional delegation has led the fight to safeguard public lands by preventing their mass sell-off, championing permanent protections for our most valued areas, and opposing efforts to terminate employees of land management agencies,” the letter states. “Our bedrock public lands management laws and Colorado’s record should give the board confidence that the La Jara transfer will continue to serve the public interest.”
Several commissioners who voted in support of the sale said they were swayed by the community support for the deal. While the risk of changes due to federal politics is real, the residents of the San Luis Valley will be the ones to deal with the consequences, said Deborah Froeb, the president of the board.
“I’ve come to think of this decision now as one (where) our fear of outcomes should not be imposed on those who will face them,” she said.
