Agreement conserves entire Roberts Ranch in Livermore

By the North Forty New s

A recent agreement between Catherine Roberts and The Nature Conservancy legally protects the entire historic Roberts Ranch from development.

Located in the Laramie Foothills between Fort Collins and Laramie, Wyo., the ranch is "one of the most beautiful places in the world," said Catherine Roberts, who, like her late husband and his ancestors, loves the land and cares for it.

"The pioneer Roberts family and their descendents have all had a burning desire to keep this land in its natural state," Roberts said in a prepared statement. "The economics of our day makes that difficult, and so I am grateful for the chance to work on this conservation easement with so many other individuals dedicated to keeping a portion of this great land open, just as it was when the first ranchers saw it."

The beginnings of the Livermore ranch, which now encompasses 16,500 acres, date back 130 years. On July 3, 1874, the first members of the Roberts family arrived in what was then called Livermore Park to manage land and cattle for Greeley resident Russell Fisk. Robert Owen Roberts had lived in other states back East before arriving in Greeley and serendipitously meeting Fisk. The six-member Roberts family first occupied Fisk's rat-infested and leaky log house.

The following year, the Roberts family built The Forks Hotel under a "squatter's right" and the family moved there. R.O. Roberts started buying cows and heifers, along with a team of horses, and made a "squatter's claim" along the North Fork of the Cache la Poudre River.

In 1882, Roberts sold The Forks Hotel, and the family moved to the river ranch location on 120 acres, which has been the home place ever since. Another 160 acres were added soon after, and for many years that was all the land owned by the Roberts Ranch. In 1900, the Roberts family decided to buy railroad land because fencing was replacing free range

To protect the land, The Nature Conservancy will hold a conservation easement that was made possible through a partnership among private community members ($200,000), the landowner, Great Outdoors Colorado and TNC. Catherine Roberts also made a large charitable donation.

"This is a great project that has been driven by a local vision and input," said John Swartout, executive director of GOCO. "We are proud to be a part of bringing this vision to life."

GOCO, funded by lottery dollars, contributed $2 million.

"It's an extraordinary achievement to conserve that ranch," said John Stokes, director of the Fort Collins Natural Resources Department.

In 2004, Fort Collins contributed $1.8 million to the overall project for watershed conservation and scenic preservation.

TNC started talking about land conservation with Catherine and the late Evan Roberts more than a decade ago. Evan, the grandson of R.O., died in 2002 at age 94. He had one son, David Derek Roberts, who also lives on the ranch.

Because of the agreement, the Roberts Ranch will continue to be a working cattle ranch. A conservation easement is a voluntary, binding agreement that protects habitat, open space and ranchland by restricting harmful forms of development. The conservation easement leaves the ranch in private ownership. There is no public access.

Protecting the Roberts Ranch and other undeveloped areas is part of the Mountains to Plains project, an ambitious effort to conserve over 55,000 acres of land rich in ecological, cultural, agricultural and recreational resources. Various groups are part of the overall effort, including local ranchers, TNC, Fort Collins, Larimer County, Legacy Land Trust and GOCO.

Native wildlife species finding refuge on the Roberts Ranch include golden eagles, pronghorn, Rocky Mountain elk, black bears, mountain lions, bobcats and numerous songbirds, all backdropped amongst spectacular displays of wildflowers. Conservation of the Roberts Ranch ensures the region's rich cultural heritage will remain on the land, preserving, for example, historic engravings along the Overland Trail and earlier traces of human history including tipi rings and Folsom points.

Livermore correspondent Linda Bell contributed to this report. Historical information is compiled from "Among These Hills; a History of Livermore, Colorado" and "Ranch Histories of Livermore and Vicinity, 1884-1956."