Nottingham Ranch easement closes, protecting 18,484 acres across Eagle and Routt counties
The Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust has closed the conservation easement on Susan Nottingham's historic working cattle ranch near Burns, the largest single-acreage deal in the history of Eagle County's Open Space program. The ranch stays private and stays in cattle.
The Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust has closed on a conservation easement covering 18,484 acres of the Nottingham Ranch, a historic working cattle ranch near Burns that spans Eagle and Routt counties. The deal permanently restricts future development on the property while keeping it in private agricultural use. The land trust announced the closing Friday, and the Vail Daily reported the news on Oct. 10.
The ranch has been in the Nottingham family for decades. Susan Nottingham's parents, Bill Nottingham Jr. and Neva Snook, spent more than 60 years assembling one of Colorado's largest working cattle ranches, and the property was listed for $100 million in 2017, according to the Colorado Sun. Nottingham ultimately chose conservation over a sale that could have divided the land and sold off its senior water rights.
Eagle County's share of the deal is the headline for local taxpayers. The Board of County Commissioners approved up to $10 million from the county's Open Space Fund in February, with the money restricted to the 9,480.49 acres of the ranch inside Eagle County. The county and the land trust described the project as the largest single-acreage conservation effort in the 23-year history of the county Open Space program, effectively doubling the program's total conservation impact since its inception. The easement's total value was estimated at $27 million to $30 million.
This is an irreplaceable opportunity due to its sheer size, high-priority habitat, and the low cost-per-acre to remove future development rights.
Tom Boyd, Eagle County Commissioner (February funding announcement)
What the public gets, and what it does not
The ranch will remain a working cattle operation and will not provide public access, the Vail Daily reported. The public benefit is the protection of a working landscape: wildlife habitat, scenic vistas, irrigated agricultural land and senior water rights. County project documents say the ranch supports about 1,200 cow-calf pairs and more than 3,000 acres of irrigated hayfield, and the easement secures over 160 cubic feet per second of senior water rights.
On wildlife, the land trust says the property provides essential winter range and calving territory for the White River elk herd, securing migratory corridors between the Flat Tops Wilderness and lower wintering grounds for an estimated 40,000 to 42,000 animals. The project also protects habitat for mule deer and pronghorn, priority nesting habitat for greater sage-grouse, and year-round connectivity for black bear and mountain lion.
Conserving land at this scale requires a visionary and committed landowner who cares deeply about the land and its stewardship.
Erik L. Glenn, CEO of the Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust (February funding announcement)
The funding coalition behind the easement includes Routt County's purchase of development rights program, Great Outdoors Colorado, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife-Eagle County Regional Partnership Initiative and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The Vail Daily reported that the Eagle County acreage represents about 4.4 percent of the county's privately owned land, a measure of the deal's scale in a county where most land is publicly held.
