Colorado State Archives

Executive Orders from the Administration of Governor Bill Owens 1999-2005

DENVER – Governor Bill Owens today joined with members of the Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Board in announcing an unprecedented investment of $60 million in state lottery proceeds. $48 million of that total will help preserve 80,000 acres including dramatic landscapes in Northern Colorado's Laramie Foothills, Jefferson County's Front Range Mountain Backdrop, and southwest Colorado's San Juan Skyway. The remaining $12 million will advance work on two new State Parks, trails, and regional outdoor recreation areas.

"With broad support from communities across the state, large expanses of open space that define the rich beauty of Colorado will now be preserved. This unprecedented investment by the GOCO Board to protect open space is good for Colorado's wildlife, our citizens and economy," Owens said. The Governor was joined by GOCO Board members and project sponsors at the State Capitol.

The $60 million will go to 18 projects that have been competing for the money since June. The grant cycle was offered by GOCO to address large-scale land preservation needs that were brought forward by local governments, land trusts and state agencies. This was part of an extensive stakeholder process the board conducted when it was deciding whether to exercise bonding authority granted to it by the voters in 2001.

"The approach the GOCO Board has chosen fulfills the voters intent without going into debt," said GOCO Board chairman, T. Wright Dickinson of Maybell. "These grants meet the most urgent land preservation needs at this time. And, if additional projects of the same urgency come forward in the future, GOCO still has preserved its option to bond."

The Governor, who supported the effort to give GOCO bonding authority, said the Board had taken a "common sense approach" by using lottery proceeds to fund the projects. "In this case, I believe the decision to fund projects from lottery proceeds, instead of incurring debt, was a common sense approach that is good for the state."

Grants awarded for land preservation include:

• $11.6 million to the Laramie Foothills/Mountain to Plains Project sponsored by Larimer County, Fort Collins, The Nature Conservancy, and the Legacy Land Trust. The project will protect 55,400 acres north of Fort Collins creating a mountain to plains conservation zone of approximately 140,000 acres. The protected area is a contiguous band extending 22 miles across, from native grasslands along I-25 to the foothills and lower reaches of the Roosevelt National Forest. It is rich in wildlife and working landscapes. Sponsors will construct 30 miles of trail in an area that has previously been inaccessible to the public. The landscape, where sweeping grasslands merge with red buttes, remains as it was when early settlers first arrived.

• $3 million to the City of Durango for the Jacob's Cliffs Open Space Acquisition. The property lies at the base of Animas Mountain and advances the City's goal of the mountain being a fully protected resource for the community. The 176 acres of Jacob's Cliffs provides scenic vistas and a heavily wooded mountainside with a mix of steep terrain and large rock outcrops and cliffs. The area also provides critical winter-range for deer and elk, as well as passive recreational opportunities such as hiking and rock climbing.

• $5 million for Jefferson County's South Table Mountain Acquisitions. Four million dollars will be used by the County toward the purchase of the 730-acre Coors property that was negotiated in November. The remaining $1 million can be used for future purchases in the same area. The preservation of South Table Mountain, one of the most recognizable landmarks on the Front Range, has been a priority for the County since voters approved an open space sales tax in 1972. Home to many wildlife, the area will also be available for hiking, mountain biking and horse back riding.

• $3.7 million to the Saguache Creek Corridor Project sponsored by the Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust (CCALT). The Saguache Creek Corridor is defined by a narrow, but unbroken chain of irrigated agricultural lands stretching west from Saguache, bordered on both sides by sagebrush-covered BLM uplands, and framed in the distance by the forested mountaintops of the Rio Grande National Forest. GOCO funds will allow CCALT to assist willing landowners, many of who have been in the area for four generations, in the perpetual protection of agricultural, wildlife and scenic values in the corridor through below market purchases of conservation easements. CCALT envisions purchasing easements on 17 ranches, permanently protecting 18,400 acres, with this grant assisting with the first eight. All of the proposed conservation easement ranches include stretches of Saguache Creek or its primary tributaries.

• $4.2 million to the Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) for the Colorado Species Conservation Partnership (CSCP)/Phase 2. This partnership is advancing the goals of Governor Owens and DOW to prevent the further decline of wildlife species, recover declining species, reduce the necessity of further listing of species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and down-listing and de-listing species listed as threatened and endangered under the ESA. Significant success has already been achieved by the CSCP partnership between DOW, the United States Department of the Interior, land trusts, and landowners through the permanent protection of 4600 acres for Gunnison Sage Grouse Habitat in Gunnison County. Colorado currently has 16 species of vertebrates listed as federally threatened or endangered. Five additional species (Gunnison sage-grouse, boreal toad, black-tailed prairie dog, Arkansas darter and lesser prairie-chicken) are in various stages of review for federal listing.

• $820,000 for the Continental Divide Trail Alliance to construct four segments of Colorado's portion of the Continental Divide Trail, an effort to create a primitive and challenging backcountry trail on or near the Continental Divide from the Canadian to the Mexican border. Colorado's portion of the trail is approximately 800 miles long; it is estimated that 487 miles of that is complete, leaving 258 miles of planning and new construction and 55 miles of reconstruction. This grant will construct 56 miles of new trail and reconstruct 17 miles in Chaffee, Clear Creek, Grand, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Jackson, Lake and San Juan counties.

• $4 million to Colorado State Parks for continued development of St. Vrain State Park in Weld and Boulder counties and $2.5 million for development of the Cheyenne Mountain State Park in El Paso County. Work at St. Vrain will include infrastructure development and construction and improvement of more than 160 campsites. The park, formerly known as Barbour Ponds, is within 20 miles of downtown Denver and will serve as an important outdoor resource for urban populations.

Mr. Dickinson concluded "The GOCO Board thanks the sponsors of these projects for their vision, creativity and for working in partnership to preserve critical wildlife habitat, our working landscapes, and scenic vistas. We know the investment of these dollars in your projects is wise and that they will be well spent by you to preserve the character of Colorado."

Great Outdoors Colorado is the result of a citizens initiative passed in 1992. It receives up to half of lottery proceeds. Since 1994, GOCO has awarded $489 million for more than 2200 projects in all of Colorado's 64 counties.

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