La Jara land deal raises questions about public access and state priorities

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project

Selling La Jara to conservation groups and the Feds, including a swap with CPW?

I had a reader send me a heads up on the State Land Board’s (SLB) La Jara land deal. The reader had heard about it in a CPW meeting because CPW could be involved in the land swap.

I wanted to push this out quick so you have a chance to sign up and speak (or email) prior to the October 15th State Land Board meeting.

As such, I can’t go into huge amounts of depth or summarize. I can give you the information that’s publicly out there so you can look and decide for yourself.

As a quick overview, the SLB is charged with management and leasing of the state’s publicly-owned lands with the mission of getting as much revenue from them as they can to help provide money to public schools.

There is a parcel in Conejos County (see the map heading this post) that is adjacent to some other public and private lands that the state has owned and managed for a long time now. The land is leased for some grazing, but seems also to be a favorite for wildlife, hunters, and anglers.

The SLB is considering selling some or all of this parcel (if you go through the SLB meeting materials for their 10/15 meeting linked first below you’ll see a quick analysis of all the various things they could do with the land: sell all, keep some, or keep all). Their contention seems to be that the land is not generating as much revenue via leases for grazing and other Ag uses now as it could if it sold and the proceeds were kept in an interest-bearing account.

Conservation groups are (again, in the meeting materials you’ll see multiple letters of support for this option) urging the sale to a conservation group and CPW as a way to keep the land in public hands for hunters/anglers/wildlife enthusiasts who want to recreate there.

This leaves the obvious question of what becomes of the folks who had grazing leases. They would get their leases bought out, of course, but I don’t think there is any provision in the sale to ensure that they could continue to use these lands for grazing.

If you want more depth on the topic, screenshot 1 attached shows where this item would fall on the SLB’s agenda, and starting on p 16 out of 487 in the link below will get you the SLB materials on the topic (background, decision pros/cons, and letters of support).

If you are either in favor or opposition to the sale, time is short. The final decision by the SLB on the topic will come at their 10/15 meeting, so sign up for testimony or write your emails by then.

https://slb.colorado.gov/public-meetings

https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:us:06c62178-2724-4bdb-bd74-7c726354a760

READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT THE COLORADO ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.