else. My guess is that some else will be wanting to pump the wetland water to a Denver suburb and/or build houses in the landing zone. It has a vey nice view.

At 5.75 million dollars for 2,250 acres, the ranch land comes out to about $2,600 per acre. If we could get RMHGA members to collectively pledge $26,000 to $52,000, we gain the chance to save 10-20 acres for a permanent Kenosha primary landing zone.

I see two routes to permanently saving the landing zone. The first is to use the money to become part of the Colorado Open Lands coalition and put a "hang gliding easement" onto the landing zone area, in addition to the conservation easement. The second option, if Colorado Open Lands is unable to pull together its coalition, is to approach the ranch owner directly to purchase the portion that we want before someone else does.

As I stated on the RMHGA discussion board, I am willing to put $1000 toward the purchase. Ron Gleason has pledged to match the largest donation to the cause, which I am hoping will cost him dearly. If we can come up with at least $26,000 in pledges, I will start talking to Colorado Open Lands or the ranch owners, whichever circumstances dictate. If we end up purchasing the land directly from the land owners, the people who pledge money will determine whether it would be best to make the landing zone the property of the RMHGA, or whether it would be better to establish a separate organization to administer it. My personal preference is that the landing zone be owned by RMHGA, and an honor system be established for site users to donate $5 or so per day they fly there. My intent is that money will be used to maintain the site or saved to help purchase other sites that become endangered.

Please pledge your support to purchase the
primary landing zone at Kenosha Pass in
whatever amount you feel you can afford.

To make your pledge known, you can contact me (Joe Beach) at home at (303)216-0553, or by e-mail at jbeach@mines.edu.

I'm sure that most of you have heard by now, through my various e-mails, announcements at meetings, and an earlier article in the Flocker, that the primary landing zone at Kenosha Pass is for sale. Just in case you haven't heard already, though, I'll give you a quick recap of what is happening.

The launch at Kenosha Pass is part of Pike National Forest, but the primary landing zone at the base of the hill is part of the Coleman Ranch, which is private property. The owners of the ranch are retiring and moving to Montana, and have put the entire 2,250 acres up for sale. A non-profit conservation group called Colorado Open Lands formed a partnership with Park County and put money down on the ranch to hold it under contract until October. Colorado Open Lands is interested in the property because its wetlands contain globally rare plant species and it is part of an elk migration route, while Park County is interested in it because it wants to keep its water rights from being sold to a front range city. While it has been under contract, they have been working with several other non-profit groups and the Colorado lottery people to come up with the 5.75 million dollars that is required to purchase the ranch.

I have spoken with people at Colorado Open Lands twice, and have found out some interesting things. On the good side, it appears that they aren't really very concerned about us using the landing zone, because it isn't located on the wetland portion of the property.

On the bad side, they don't intend to own the land for all that long. Their intent appears to be to purchase the ranch, and then resell it with a conservation easement on it that will prevent future owners from developing it beyond its current state. Those future owners may or may not allow us to use the primary landing zone, it will be their decision.  Also on the bad side, it is already October and they have not been able to get all of the required money together yet. If they can't come up with the first year's payment of 1.5 million dollars, they lose the contract and the land will be sold to someone