Land managers in Colorado’s central mountains are celebrating what they’re calling an unprecedented open space acquisition.

Eagle and Pitkin counties recently finalized their acquisition of Three Meadows Ranch — 4,251 acres sprawling to the west of Cottonwood Pass over the Roaring Fork Valley.

It’s Eagle County’s largest such open space purchase: $12.5 million toward the total $27.7 million funded by three agencies. It’s a historic milestone, too, for Pitkin County, which contributed $7.7 million toward the deal.

Last year, the county praised 650-acre Snowmass Falls Ranch as a “holy grail” of conservation. Three Meadows Ranch is more than six times that size.

“This is a monster,” said Gary Tennenbaum, director of Pitkin County Open Space and Trails. “This is an absolute legacy project. There are very few opportunities to acquire this much contiguous land. It’s just astounding.”

It was possible thanks also to a $7.5 million donation through Aspen Valley Land Trust, which is serving as the landowner. 

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“So many of the projects we do are smaller acreage,” said Marcia Gilles, director of Eagle County Open Space and Natural Resources. “A couple hundred acres, maybe 1,000 if we’re lucky, and we just try to kind of piece things together and create open space.

“So to get such a large ranch that is adjacent to Forest Service land to create this contiguous landscape, it’s just an unbelievable opportunity.”

The opportunity arose last fall, Tennenbaum said. A Pitkin County commissioner had been eyeing Three Meadows Ranch for conservation as the historic grazing and ranching land swapped hands in recent years.

The chance came up again near the end of last year, Commissioner Greg Poschman noticed. “He was like, Hey guys, this is on the market, we really need to jump,” Tennenbaum recalled.

Three Meadows spanned Eagle County. That was no deterrence to Pitkin County’s interest. It would not be the first time the two counties pooled money together on an acquisition; Glassier Open Space is a previous example.

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Three Meadows “is in Eagle County, but it’s in the Roaring Fork watershed, and wildlife knows no boundaries,” Tennenbaum said. “So for us, this was a huge way to impact wildlife herds and migration corridors and connectivity throughout the entire valley.”

Time was of the essence. Two other offers were on the table, Gilles said.

“There was a high potential for development, for the potential to break it out in 30-acre parcels and be subdivided,” she said. “It was being marketed as an Aspen amenity. So there was potential for homes, more luxury-type homes.”

That could have been a threat to elk moving through the area. A Colorado Parks and Wildlife representative followed along with the open space effort, speaking on the possibility of herd fragmentation from development.

At an Eagle County commissioners meeting this month, CPW’s Matt Yamashita called the acquisition “a combination of everything we’re looking for.”

It required a combination of specialists and staff from two counties and Aspen Valley Land Trust working fast, Gilles said. “Definitely some high pressure, late night and weekend discussions,” she said. “At one point we calculated at least 30 folks that came to the table.”

Now comes “a critical year for evaluation,” Gilles said.

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Eagle and Pitkin counties have a short-term agreement for management while staff studies the natural, historic and cultural elements of the property. Three Meadows Ranch consists of senior water rights, two reservoirs, farm structures recalling the land’s recent past and a stagecoach stop recalling a more distant history.

“We’ve gotta learn a lot more about all this stuff,” Tennenbaum said.

The potential is there for future recreation. “But it’s gotta be wildlife first,” he said.

And there’s “potential to sell to a private landowner and place a conservation easement on it for use as agriculture and ranching,” Gilles said. “There’s just a lot of different paths that could be taken going into the future.”

In the present, there’s celebration.

The deal was indeed “unprecedented” and “unique,” Tennenbaum said. “And I hope it gives other areas some thought about how we can come together and do this stuff.”