Alamosa - Monte Vista - Baca
National Wildlife Refuges
San Luis Valley, Colorado

Long a sanctuary for wildlife and man, the San Luis Valley was once home to the Ute tribe. These "Blue Sky People" shared their elk, deer, pronghorns, small game, and waterfowl with occasional Comanche raiding parties. The first Europeans in the Valley came with Don Diego de Vargas in 1694. For the next 100 years the Spaniards led occasional forays north to try and stop the marauding Comanche but that wasn't accomplished until the 1780's when Juan Bautista de Anza finally concluded a treaty with the Comanches several years after he and his men killed Cuerno Verde, a charismatic war chief, at the foot of Greenhorn Mountain.

The Valley extends over 100 miles from north to south and 50 miles from east to west, with high mountains in three directions. These high mountains feed the Valley with precious surface water, as well as replenish an expansive underground aquifer. All organic life lives in the balance of this natural cycle. Rivers fed by mountain snow and wetlands created by artesian pressure create threads and patches of life on the valley floor. Early European settlers took advantage of this liquid wealth and for the past 200 years turned the San Luis Valley into a rich agricultural center.

Zebulon Pike was the first American to come into the Valley and he was promptly arrested and taken to Santa Fe for questioning. After Pike came the trappers and fur traders. In 1848, with the conclusion of the Mexican-American War, the Valley became American territory and was opened up for settlement. When large numbers of Europeans arrived and settled in the Valley, the wildlife quickly began to decline. The Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge was created in 1953 as a safe haven for the remaining wildlife in the Valley, especially the waterfowl. Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1962 for the same reasons.

Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge includes 11,169 acres of highly varied wetlands located mostly within the Rio Grande flood plain. A rich wildlife diversity is sustained by the natural wet meadows, river oxbows and riparian corridors. Songbirds, water birds, raptors, deer, beaver, and coyotes are supported by these wetlands. This unspoiled wilderness is Alamosa's legacy for the future.

Alamosa NWR has a wilder character than Monte Vista NWR. To preserve this wildness, the refuge is less intensively managed. However, water is still manipulated and other management tools such as burning and grazing are used. Water from the Rio Grande is supplemented by artesian wells and water pumped from the Closed Basin Project.

Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge was established by the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission in 1953 to provide a much needed habitat for wildlife, particularly waterfowl, in the San Luis Valley. The Monte Vista NWR's 14,189 acres of man-made wetlands is intensively managed to provide habitat for a wide variety of waterfowl and other water birds. Using numerous dikes and other water control structures, we have created a patchwork of diverse wetland habitats ranging from shallow wet meadows to open water. Artesian wells, pumped wells and irrigation canals, some dating to the Valley's “ditch boom” of the 1880's, supply water. Many other management tools, including mowing, grazing, prescribed burning, and farming are also used to ensure that refuge lands continue to provide food, cover and nesting habitat for waterfowl and other water birds.

Mallards, pintail, teal, Canada geese, avocets, killdeer, and ibis are common, as are egrets and herons. The refuge is also a major layover place for migrating greater sandhill cranes when they move between their wintering area around Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico and their summer breeding grounds in the northern United States and southern Canada. Up to 20,000 cranes will pass through in the spring and again in the fall. Three remaining endangered whooping cranes from a failed attempt to establish a wild migratory population in the 1980's can sometimes be seen migrating with the sandhill cranes, their foster species.

A herd of elk began using the refuge in the l980's. These days, several hundred elk may be seen on the refuge looking for winter food and fall sanctuary from the hunting pressure on other nearby public lands.

In the San Luis Valley, wetlands and high altitude desert exist side by side. Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge ensures wildlife a continuing place in this unique environment.

Baca National Wildlife Refuge

On November 22, 2000, Congress authorized the establishment of the Baca National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) located in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. Authorization for establishment of the Refuge was included in Public Law 106-530 under Section 6 of the Act entitled, "The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Act of 2000." In addition to the Refuge, the Act authorized the Federal acquisition of lands adjacent to the Great Sand Dunes National Monument for the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

In approving The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Act of 2000, Congress determined that the lands to be acquired under the Act offered unique hydrological, educational, wildlife, recreational, and other diverse resources deserving of preservation for the enjoyment of future generations. Total estimated acreage of lands included in the Act is approximately 203,632 acres.

Baca NWR consists of approximately 92,500 acres of wetlands, sagebrush, and riparian lands in Saguache and Alamosa Counties. Other features included within the Refuge are sand dunes, forested areas, and several thousand acres of ditch-serviced, irrigated lands.

Establishment of the Baca NWR occurred in 2003 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service accepted the transferance of about 3,300 acres in Saugache County from the Bureau of Reclamation. Another 97,036 acres of land known as the Baca Grande (formerly Baca Location #4), were bought by The Nature Conservancy from the Cabeza de Baca Land & Cattle Co., LLC, a Colorado limited liability company.

Approximately 53,500 acres of the Baca Ranch land bought by the Nature Conservancy will, upon payment of Land and Water Conservation Funds (LWCF), be conveyed to the United States as part of the refuge. Of the remaining 36,000 acres needed to fill out the Refuge, 20,000 acres are owned by the State of Colorado and another approximately 16,000 acres is privately-owned.

The Refuge boundary abuts lands owned and/or controlled by other conservation entities including The Nature Conservancy, the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Colorado Board of Land Commissioners (school land). These neighboring landowners, along with the Fish & Wildlife Service interests located in the San Luis Valley, will represent the largest and most diverse assemblage of wetlands in the State of Colorado.

The Baca Ranch

The 97,036-acre Baca Ranch is located in the San Luis Valley, which has historically been dominated by ranching, farming, timber extraction, and mining. Farming, ranching, and logging still persist in the valley, but more and more lands are being taken out of agricultural production and are being developed for rural recreation and residential home sites. The Baca Ranch comprises the majority of the former 100,000-acre Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca Land Grant No.4. The ranch has a carrying capacity of about 2,500 cow-calf pairs.

Approximately 20,000 acres of the ranch are irrigated acres having either natural, reliable water sources or are ditch-serviced or are periodically sub-irrigated by limited water supplied by ditch seepage or from the temporary flooding of natural channels and naturally high water tables.

At Alamosa Refuge, the Bluff Overlook is open to the public and offers excellent wildlife and wildlands viewing. There is also a hiking trail along the Rio Grande for those so inclined. Monte Vista NWR is accessible all year round. Within the refuge is a self-guided auto tour route as well as county roads crossing the Refuge offering fascinating wildlife viewing. A single Headquarters for all three Refuges is located at Alamosa Refuge and offers information and exhibits.

Alamosa Refuge is located 4 miles east of Alamosa on US 160 and then south 2 miles on El Rancho Lane. Monte Vista NWR is located 6 miles south of Monte Vista on State Highway 15.