SLVEC soars over the Valley's public lands with Ecoflight
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The San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council (SLVEC) took to the skies on May 17, hosting
three Ecoflights over the San Luis Valley and its public lands. The event celebrated Colorado Public Lands Day, along with Armed Forces Day.
Ecoflight pilot Gary Kraft took a diverse set of community members who represented science, politics, and media on the May flights. Three flights covered north along the Great Sand Dunes National Park and toward Gunnison, and two flew south along the Rio Grande River, over La Jara Reservoir and Wolf Creek.
Flight One passengers included State Senator Cleave Simpson (Air Force Veteran); flyover guide Randy Ghormley, retired Rio Grande National Forest biologist (all three flights); Craig Rauwolf, president, and Alexander Kamrud, board member, of the SLV FoxHole Project. The nonprofit FoxHole Project gets veterans out onto public lands.
Flight Two included Patrick Ortiz, SLV Aide to Senator Hickenlooper; Suzanne Beauchaine, retired US Fish and Wildlife Service Manager for SLV Wildlife Refuges (who also won the SLVEC auction for Ecoflight at its 25th Anniversary last November); Michelle Lanzoni, Colorado water scientist at the Department of Natural Resources; Kevin Hernandez, L8gacy Media and veteran.
Flight Three included State Representative Matt Martinez, also a veteran; Chris Lopez, founder of the Alamosa Citizen and Matt Lit, Managing Editor of The Crestone Eagle.
Flights one and three went south from the San Luis Valley Regional Airport, along the Rio Grande corridor, scoping out Flat Top Mesa — An “Area of Critical and Environmental Concern” (ACEC) and San Luis Hills, a “Wilderness Study Area” (WSA); viewing the Colorado-New Mexico border at Lobatos Bridge and over Antonito. SLVEC is recommending this area be designated as a National Conservation Area (NCA). The plane then headed west towards La Jara Reservoir, 50,000 acres of state lands that have recently been acquired (last October) by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM). These lands were purchased using Land and Water Conservation Funds. Then the flight made its way up to Wolf Creek, to view the Continental Divide, witnessing the decades-long beetle kill from above, and viewing the private in-holding that is proposing the controversial “Village at Wolf Creek” development.
Flight two headed north to View Mt. Blanca (in Navajo “Sis Naajini,” meaning “white shell mountain”) The peak is the fourth highest summit (14,351 ft. peak) of the Rocky Mountains of North America. Blanca Peak has outstanding value to native peoples of the Southwest. The Navajo, Ute and Jicarilla Apache consider the peak sacred and it is also important within the cultural landscape of the Upper Rio Grande pueblos. The BLM Blanca Wetlands is classified as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), or Blanca Wildlife Habitat Area, which serves as a refuge for birds, fish and other wildlife. The Blanca Wildlife Habitat Area covers almost 10,000 acres south of San Luis Lakes and near to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.
The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve encompasses the tallest dunes in North America and are the centerpiece in a diverse landscape of grasslands, wetlands, forests, alpine lakes and tundra. The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Act was passed in 2000. SLVEC received congressional recognition for working to support this designation.
The flight then headed west to the San Juan Mountains to view the eastern portion of the Gunnison Outdoors Resources Protection Act (GORP) proposal and specifically, the 45,000-acre Sawtooth Wildlife Conservation Area, which was introduced by Colorado U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet in 2024, and Colorado U.S. Representative Jeff Hurd in 2025. The GORP proposal has the support of Saguache County Commissioners as this BLM land is located in the Gunnison basin, but still located in Saguache County (Cochetopa Pass) and contains a critical wildlife corridor that links the Gunnison and San Luis Valley basins.
Ecoflight aims to educate and advocate for the protection of wildlands, wildlife habitat, watersheds, and culturally important landscapes using small aircraft. Learn more at https://ecoflight.org/.
Foxhole Project's mission is "For those who served. By those who understand. With those who care." Learn more at https://www.thefoxholeproject.org/.