Help us Protect Williams Ranch!

If you’ve walked or biked the Monarch Spur Trail, you’ve likely noticed Williams Ranch. This 37-acre open space sits in the heart of Salida, with open fields, grazing cattle, hay meadows,  and breathtaking views of the mountains. Its undeveloped landscape is a familiar part of the experience of being on the trail, and an important piece of what makes this area feel like Salida.

 

For generations, the Williams family has cared for this land as a working ranch. Today, cattle still graze in the fields, hay grows where natural seepage keeps the land green, and wildlife moves across the property. The ranch provides open space in an area where development is increasingly changing the landscape.

 

We have an opportunity to ensure that Williams Ranch remains this way, for good.

 

Central Colorado Conservancy is working with the Williams family to place a permanent conservation easement on the property. The easement would protect the ranch from subdivision and development while allowing it to remain a working agricultural operation.

 

Thanks to Chaffee Common Ground funding and City of Salida support, we have secured most of the funding needed to make this project possible. Now we need our community’s help to raise the remaining $50,000 needed to enable the protection of Williams Ranch.

 

Neighbors of this special place have already pledged $7,500 toward this goal. Will you join us in helping ensure Williams Ranch remains a working ranch and open space for the future of our community? 

 

Places like Williams Ranch are increasingly rare. Protecting this land now means that future generations who use the Monarch Spur Trail can look across the fields, watch cattle grazing, spot deer and fox move through the landscape, listen to the meadowlarks, and enjoy the same mountain views we do today.

 

A gift of any size matters. Together, we can ensure Williams Ranch remains part of Salida’s landscape and community forever.
 

Questions? Feel free to email us.