Effort to conserve East Vail open space that’s home to bighorn herd will get $5 million from Eagle County
Parcel will be managed by Eagle Valley Land Trust
Rick Spitzer/Courtesy photo
The Eagle County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously agreed to use $5 million in open space funds to help preserve a 148-acre East Vail parcel that’s home to a native herd of bighorn sheep.
The deal will help offset some of the cost of the town of Vail’s $17.5 million purchase in 2023 of a 23-acre parcel from Vail Resorts to preserve a portion of the property.
In her presentation to the commissioners, Eagle County Open Space and Natural Resources Director Marcia Gilles told the commissioners how the project had been through an evaluation process by the county’s Open Space Advisory Committee. That process began in 2023, Gilles said, and met four of that committee’s six criteria for funding projects.
The biggest, of course, is the presence of an “endemic herd” of bighorn sheep that uses the property as critical winter range.
Vail Town Council Member Jonathan Staufer noted the herd has probably been in the area “since at least the last ice age.”
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Staufer said the deal to preserve the property falls within Vail’s ethic of “living lightly on the land.”
The parcel will be put under a conservation easement managed by the Eagle Valley Land Trust. Land Trust Director Jessica Foulis said she’s “excited” to be part of the project, adding she’s grateful for all the work that town and county officials had put into the project.
Kristen Bertuglia, Vail’s environmental sustainability director, noted that preserving the parcel had been a “long, arduous process,” and thanked those responsible for the work that resulted in the final deal.
That gratitude was echoed by the commissioners.
Commissioner Tom Boyd noted that wildlife habitat is perhaps the “thing we’ve lost the most of” during his lifetime, and is one of the things the county and its people most need to preserve, adding he’s “happy” to be part of preserving the East Vail parcel.
Commissioner Matt Scherr added his appreciation for the “public process” deciding “what our role is in this land.”
