Larimer County is purchasing a 1,091-acre ranch as part of conservation efforts in the Laramie Foothills area, the county’s Department of Natural Resources announced Wednesday.

The $3.5 million ranch is being purchased with funding from Larimer County’s Help Preserve Open Spaces sales tax, the city of Fort Collins’ Open Space Yes sales tax, Great Outdoors Colorado and the Friends of Larimer County Parks and Open Lands.

“We are honored to be able to partner with this landowner to protect the ranch in perpetuity,” said Daylan Figgs, director at Larimer County Natural Resources.

“Sincere thanks to the citizens of Fort Collins and Larimer County for their continued support of local open space initiatives that make projects like this possible.”

The ranch, providing a two-mile buffer and backdrop of the Red Mountain Open Space, is located between RMOS and Colorado State University’s Maxwell Ranch.

The ranch is one of four recently identified for conservation in the Laramie Foothills area and supported through the GOCO Open Space grant awarded in June.

“This purchase further stitches together lands conserved through a long-term partnership among Larimer County, Fort Collins, private landowners and others in the Laramie Foothills,” said Meegan Flenniken, division manager at Larimer County Natural Resources.

The property will be managed by Larimer County as part of RMOS.

It includes stream-carved canyons, hogback rock outcroppings, ponderosa pine forests and mountain-mahogany shrubland communities.

“This acquisition is an exciting addition to a beloved and increasingly important landscape of conserved lands in the Laramie Foothills,” said Mark Sears, natural areas manager with the city of Fort Collins Natural Areas Department.

“These lands provide critical habitat and migration corridors for wildlife and much-needed respite from urban life for all people.”

Larimer County’s purchase of the property will be finalized in September.