Palmer Secures $390,000 for Markus Ranch Conservation Project
This month, Great Outdoors Colorado awarded Palmer Land Trust $390,000 in support of the Markus Ranch Conservation Project. Resting at 9,000 feet on the north slopes of Pikes Peak, the 1,027-acre Markus Ranch is the last, large unprotected property in the Pikes Peak Conservation Corridor (PPCC), an undeveloped block of public and private lands that frame the north slope of “America’s Mountain” between Woodland Park and Divide.
The Markus Ranch occupies a nationally significant landscape. Enos Mills, the “father of Rocky Mountain National Park,” proposed establishing a national park around Pikes Peak more than a century ago. Colorado Congressman and Public Lands Committee member Charles Timberlake advanced the cause through the early 1900s, calling the Pikes Peak region “America’s scenic playground.” “Within a radius of a dozen miles of the summit of Pikes Peak,” he said, “is a greater variety of wonderful scenery, more easily accessible than in any other equal area on the American continent.” The lands occupied by the Markus Ranch were central to the proposals of both Mills and Timberlake. While the Park was never established, Palmer Land Trust’s efforts have been central to protecting what remains of many of the incredible places Mills and Timberlake wanted to see preserved. Current Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (at the time Colorado Attorney General) called the PPCC: “one of the crown jewels” of open space preservation in the state.
The Markus ranch provides a pastoral setting for dramatic, sweeping views of Pikes Peak from US Highway 24. Over 20,000 people pass the ranch each day. Palmer Land Trust and the Markus family have placed 755 acres of the Markus Ranch under conservation easement to date. 280 acres were placed under easement in 2009. An additional 300 acres were placed under easement in 2010 thanks to the support of Great Outdoors Colorado and the Mary K. Chapman Foundation. A third phase of the conservation project closed in 2011, protecting an additional 175 acres. The GOCO grant will enable Palmer Land Trust and the Markus family to conclude conservation efforts on the last unprotected portion of the ranch in early 2012.
The Markus Ranch is one of the last two 1,000-plus-acre ranches in a nearly contiguous 18-mile long conservation focus area spanning the north and west slopes of Pikes Peak. Recent investments in the 18-mile focus area from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Carl George Bjorkman Foundation, the Gates Family Foundation, Great Outdoors Colorado, and numerous individuals are helping to protect these last two ranches. The protected focus area marks a significant milestone in Palmer’s Protect the Peak Conservation Initiative—the goal of which is to create a contiguous ring of protected lands that circumnavigate America’s Mountain: Pikes Peak.
