Larimer County approves purchase of D Dart Ranch conservation easement

Larimer County commissioners on March 25 approved a resolution to acquire a conservation easement on the 574-acre D Dart Ranch, a property in the Livermore Valley the county says contains wildlife habitat, scenic views and working agricultural land.

The purchase, recommended by the Open Lands Advisory Board at its Feb. 27 meeting, is funded in part by a Great Outdoors Colorado grant and contributions from the City of Fort Collins, The Nature Conservancy, the Gates Family Foundation and private donors; Larimer County will hold the easement and the transaction is scheduled to close April 11, officials said.

The agreement limits development on the ranch to protect natural habitat, scenic values along County Road 74 E and agricultural uses, county staff said. “This is the third and final conservation easement project in the Livermore area funded through the GOCO grant,” Megan Flendikin, program staff with Larimer County Natural Resources, said during the meeting. Justin Core, senior land agent in the county’s engineering department, said the property includes foothills grasslands and shrub lands, a portion of a Colorado Natural Heritage Program area of significant biodiversity and critical habitat delineated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the Prebles’ meadow jumping mouse.

Core said the conservation easement interest the county is acquiring is valued at $1,675,000. He told commissioners the ranch’s irrigated acreage — about 65 acres used primarily for hay — and associated senior water rights tied to Lone Pine Creek will remain with the property and be protected by the easement so the water cannot be permanently separated from the land.

Commissioner John Kefalas praised staff and the landowners for working with the county. “This is an example of how the county works with willing landowners to preserve open space for lots of different conservation-related, wildlife habitat-related values,” Kefalas said.

County staff said the D Dart Ranch project builds contiguous protected lands in the Laramie Foothills priority area. The county noted that, with this closing, it and its partners will have conserved more than 5,000 acres so far this year (about 5,052 acres) and the county’s overall conserved landholdings now top roughly 62,000 acres. County staff also said the D Dart Ranch easement will protect about 0.8 mile of the southern backdrop along County Road 74 E; combined with other projects this year, about 4.5 miles of the 74 E corridor viewshed will be conserved.

Commissioner Jody Shattuck McNally made introductory remarks and thanked the property owners and staff; County Manager Lorenda Volker called the work a milestone in landscape connectivity. At the close of the discussion, Commissioner Kefalas moved to approve the resolution authorizing acquisition of the conservation easement; the motion passed on a voice vote.

The county said the easement will be held by Larimer County in perpetuity. Staff identified the partner funders and noted the conservation values the easement is designed to protect — wildlife habitat, scenic viewshed, agricultural use and tied water rights — but did not specify detailed future management steps for livestock grazing or irrigation changes beyond what the easement restricts.

The commissioners’ action was limited to approving the resolution and statement of authority; staff will complete closing steps and record the easement according to standard county practice. The county’s Natural Resources division plans to continue outreach with partners and to monitor the property under the terms of the recorded conservation easement.