Baca National Wildlife Refuge

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View southeast from the northwest corner of the original Luis Maria Baca Grant #4, now included in the Baca NWR, the Great Sand Dunes and the Sangre de Cristo Range are in the background

The Baca National Wildlife Refuge (Baca NWR) is 92,500 acre (374 km²) United States National Wildlife Refuge located in southern Colorado. It is located on the lands of the Luis Maria Baca Grant No. 4 near Crestone, Colorado in the San Luis Valley in northern Alamosa and southern Saguache counties, about 30 miles northwest of the town of Alamosa, on the west side of the Sangre de Cristo Range. The site was authorized by the United States Congress in 2000 as part of legislation that also authorized the nearby Great Sand Dunes National Park. It was formally established in 2003 when administration began under the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. It is administered jointly with the nearby Alamosa and Monte Vista NWR as part of the Alamosa/Baca/Monte Verde Complex.

The refuge consists of rangeland and some riparian wetlands. It includes several thousand acres of irrigated hay meadows. The original ranch headquarters and other buildings are on the wildlife refuge. As is usual on federal wildlife refuges, grazing and hay production continue on a limited basis. The establishment of the refuge and national park was part of complex arrangement of land transfers undertaken by the federal government in cooperation with the Nature Conservancy and the State of Colorado. Approximately 3,300 acres (13 km²) of the land was previously under the management of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and was transferred to the Fish and Wildlife Service. Approximately 97,036 acres (393 km²) of the land for the refuge and park was part of the historic Baca Ranch and was purchased by the Nature Conservancy before its transfer to the federal government. The refuge forms part of complex of wetlands in the San Luis Valley consists of lands of nearby landowners, including the Colorado Board of Land Commissioners, the National Park Service, and the Nature Conservancy.

[edit] Oil and gas exploration

The mineral rights to the lands of the Baca NWR are owned by a third party. Lexam Explorations (U.S.A.) Inc. (Lexam) has given notice of its intent to drill two exploratory wells. There is believed to be a small chance that commercial quantities of natural gas may be discovered. (An existing artesian well on the land, called the "gas well", produced enough gas to heat one home.) Local environmentalists have obtained a court order requiring the Fish and Wildlife Service to prepare an environmental assessment with respect to the drilling.^[1] The draft environmental assessment was released January 18, 2008 for public comment.