Fish and Wildlife Service: The proposal was promoted and strongly supported by Ken Salazar, United States Secretary of the Interior in the Obama administration.

Secretary Salazar is a Hispanic San Luis Valley native with a ranching background in Conejos County, Colorado.

[1] Public meetings on the draft proposal were held by the Fish and Wildlife Service in May, 2012 in Alamosa, San Luis, and Moffat, Colorado and comments solicited.

The surrounding sagebrush shrublands and mountains provide homes and migration corridors for the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, Canada lynx, and important State game species such as elk and deer.

Conservation easement contracts would specify perpetual protection of habitat for trust species and limits on residential, industrial, or commercial development.