Editor’s note: The photo with this article has been updated to correctly reflect the Granby Highlands-Trails Conservation Easement. The previous photo was of a different easement.

Colorado Headwaters Land Trust has officially acquired a 743-acre conservation easement in Granby north of the intersection of U.S. Highways 40 and 34, according to a news release from the organization.

The new conservation easement is planned to have up to 10 miles of trails available to residents and visitors to enjoy the outdoors without leaving Granby.

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The Granby Highlands-Trails Conservation Easement is where the former Horn Ranch used to be and has also been referred to as the former Shorefox Property. The property has been owned by the town of Granby since 2016, and it sold sections of the land to Sun Communities. Different uses for the former cattle ranch land have been proposed over the years, but none of the ideas ever “panned out,” according to the release.

The conservation easement encompasses 743 acres and borders 2 miles of the Colorado River. Just under half of the land will be restricted from the public to protect local wildlife as well as the natural views around Granby. The remaining land is permitted to have up to 10 miles of nonmotorized trails built.

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Colorado Parks and Wildlife area manager Jeromy Huntington said the project was essential to protecting wildlife in the area and was a “true partnership focused on balancing recreation, development and essential habitat for wildlife.”

“This project was a critical puzzle piece to complement other protected lands and the only known greater sage-grouse lek on the east side of Middle Park,” Huntington said.

The easement is home to a variety of species of wildlife that live throughout Grand County, including big game, predators and migratory birds. The easement borders Bureau of Land Management land and other private holdings, which creates more contiguous open space and migratory pathways for animals, according to the release.

Colorado Headwaters Land Trust’s Executive Director Jeremy Krones said closing on the easement has been “a great way to close out 2024.”

“This has been a long, slow process, and I am so thankful to everyone who has had a role in bringing it to a successful end,” Krones said in the release. “We are so thankful to the town of Granby staff and trustees — as well as our county commissioners and the advisory board of the Open Lands, Rivers and Trails fund — for being such strong supporters of this project.”

The easement was donated partly by the town of Granby with funding from the Open Lands, River and Trails Fund, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Devil’s Thumb Ranch, Mountain Parks Electric, the Gates Family Foundation, the Hughes Charitable Trust, the Townsend Fund, Country ACE Hardware, the Grand County Wilderness Group and other private donors, the release stated.

It is Colorado Headwaters Land Trust’s 68th easement since the land trust began in 1995, and it brings the total acres conserved by the land trust in Grand County to 10,133, according to the release.

Granby Mayor Josh Hardy said the town will have more news next year about preliminary plans for the easement’s public access area.

The town “looks forward to the input from all residents in the town and county on how the property will be used moving forward,” Hardy said in the release.