Find out the latest news happening at the Land Board!
Read the spring 2022 edition to learn about:
- Jumping mouse habitat
- State Forest State Park
- Local schools winning BEST grants
NOTE: there was no winter 2021 issue.
Read the summer 2021 edition to learn about:
- Nearly $300 million awarded in capital construction grants to Colorado schools
- Mile High Youth Corps volunteers repair fences at Lowry Ranch
- Trust land designated into the Colorado Natural Areas Program
- Fire mitigation techniques
Read the spring 2021 edition to learn about:
- Honey beehive installation at our downtown buildings
- Two large properties available for agriculture and recreation leasing
- Leave No Trace principles
- Expansion of the Public Access Program
Read the January 2021 edition to learn about:
- Construction begins on new affordable housing building
- Pollinator path program
- 2020 customer awards
- and more!
Read the fall 2020 edition to learn about:
- Our new map server
- Public Access Program for sportsmen on trust land
- Stewardship Action Plan for fens
- Coal mine reclamation
- our fiscal year 2020 annual report (we earned $131 million for school kids!)
- and more!
Read the summer 2020 edition to learn about:
- Renewable energy leases
- Jim Creek restoration,
- Stewardship Action Plan for lesser prairie chickens,
- Lowry Ranch enhancement funds,
- and more!
View our past issues
- Spring 2020 edition
- Winter 2020 edition of Field Notes
- Summer 2019 edition of Field Notes
- Spring 2019 edition of Field Notes
- Winter 2019 edition of Field Notes
- Fall 2018 edition of Field Notes
- Summer 2018 edition of Field Notes
- Spring 2018 edition of Field Notes
- Winter 2018 edition of Field Notes
Spotlight stories
Read the lessee spotlight about the McCoy Wieser family who have held a lease for five generations.
Read the property spotlight about Sherman Creek Ranch in Jackson County.
Featured Story: Big Horn Sheep Relocated Via Helicopter: Population Now Exceeds 400 in SE Colorado
The State Land Board partnered with Colorado Parks & Wildlife in January to relocate 15 big horn sheep from Chancellor Ranch in Las Animas County to Bader Ranch, also in Las Animas.
Our goal was to help increase the population of big horn sheep by expanding the breadth of herd locations in southeastern Colorado.
Watch a 30-second video of CPW staff capturing a big horn sheep by helicopter.
This was the second relocation exercise on trust land in the past several years. An additional eight ewes were captured, collared, and released on site with tracking collars as part of a state-wide movement study.
Big horn sheep were historically found in Purgatoire Canyon in southern Colorado but were eradicated during early European settlement. In 1982 Colorado successfully reintroduced 17 sheep from Rocky Mountain National Park to the area. The population in southeastern Colorado now exceeds 400.
In 2015 Colorado Parks and Wildlife created the Bighorn Sheep Access Plan (BSAP). It allows private and public recreation licenses on large ranches that have well established big horn sheep populations. Chancellor Ranch, which is owned by the State Land Board, is participating in the BSAP as an interagency, 3-year pilot program. As part the BSAP we committed to improving 500 acres of big horn sheep habitat and agreed to the multi-year relocation effort.
In the fall of 2017, the first public ram license was issued by auction and the hunter was successful in their hunt on the Chancellor Ranch. The Colorado Chapter of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Society recently auctioned another ram license in April 2018; 75% of the proceeds were collected by the State Land Board.
Contact Ron Rivale, Southwest District Manager for the State Land Board, at 719-589-2360 for more information.