A Bottom-Up National Park

Anew and hopeful private-public conservation partnership has quietly developed out of sight in south-central Colorado, not unlike the immense underground aquifer it’s designed to protect. And while the splashy Olympics, each day’s overheated political rhetoric and Niles’ marriage proposal on “Fraser” are all very important doings, the positive lessons buried in the wild San Luis Valley have more long-term implications for American life. When’s the last time, for instance, you heard local folks--especially rural Western local folks--supporting more federal land ownership and a new national park?

This complex land transfer will take a few years to consummate. But using its familiar collaborative approach, here’s what the Nature Conservancy in Colorado has done so far, working with local citizens, local officials, the governor, two senators, a representative, a local water district and two Interior secretaries from different parties: sign a $31.28-million agreement to purchase the 151-square-mile Baca Ranch, 140 miles southwest of Denver, now the largest land preservation project in Colorado history. If everything unfolds properly, in 2005 the land that covers the valley bottom, vast sand dunes and towering mountain peaks will become the 58th national park, a new wildlife refuge and additional national forest acreage. This would preserve a prime underground water system now threatened with commercial exploitation.

Already, Congress has appropriated $10 million and created the Great Sand Dunes National Park pending the final sale.

Assembling diverse coalitions and emphasizing what they agree on has been a familiar operating theme in the conservancy’s successful projects, which have protected more than 12 million acres nationally, often by acquiring land and tacking it on to existing parks or forests. In terms of dollars and involved parties, the Colorado deal is one of the group’s largest efforts, a growing scale its leaders see as ever more necessary for 21st century conservation to have a practical impact against rampant development.

Obstacles remain. Current owners must resolve internal legal disputes. Congress must appropriate $21 million more. But elected officials seem united. And one owner, Yale University, vows to donate its profit back to the conservancy. It seems so simple to note how much progress can be made when clever confrontation is not the goal, just patiently rowing in the same direction, together.