Houston Ranch is protected forever

CREEDE— When author Pam Houston got the advance for her first book, Cowboys Are My Weakness, she knew just what to do with it: put the payment down on a beautiful ranch outside of Creede. It’s a one-of-a-kind spot with open meadow for elk to graze, Lime Creek tumbling down from the forest to the Rio and stunning views from Middle Creek Road up toward Copper Mountain and the Continental Divide. She’s lived there and taken care of it for over 20 years and now it’s the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust’s (RiGHT) turn to help protect it.
At the conservation easement closing, Houston read the end of her new book, Deep Creek, aloud. She described what stewarding the land has meant to her and how she›s grown through the experience.
It was so great to have her husband, Mike Blakeman, there too because Mike’s been an amazing supporter of RiGHT for years. He’s was RiGHT’s first ever “Volunteer of the Year” and took a lot of the photos of the land the organization has conserved.
It’s always so special to protect a place with the people who care about it the most, and Houston’s words made the conservation ceremony worthy of work that’ll last forever.
RiGHT is leading a local initiative to protect the critical private lands along the Rio Grande and its major tributaries in the San Luis Valley, with over 25,000 acres protected as of 2015. For more information, visit www.riograndelandtrust.org.