They had to climb a higher mountain to gain a seat at the table, but the hard work was well worth the effort.

Members of the San Juan Skyway Land Conservation and Recreation Initiative learned last week that Great Outdoors Colorado had awarded the group a $5.7 million legacy grant.

Legacy grants are multi-year commitments that have helped create new state parks and preserve delicate wetlands, critical agricultural lands and rich river corridors.

The $5.7 million will go toward 14 projects in communities and landscapes along the San Juan Skyway. Those projects range from protecting five ranches in the Dolores and Mancos River valleys to upgrading facilities at Silverton-owned Molas Lake to consolidating ownership of the Ouray Ice Park.

"We have been challenged in this part of the state with getting GOCO legacy awards," said Ken Francis, director of Fort Lewis College's Office of Community Services. Francis assisted the various applicant groups with organizational development and helped with writing the application. "Those awards seem to go to places that typically have a lot of money up front from dedicated open space funding sources."

In pulling together this application and the constituent applicants, Francis hoped to demonstrate to GOCO that the southwest corner of the state had the requisite resources.

"We wanted to prove that we can be successful in raising money, and we could bring to the table a broad-based regional cooperative, something that others were not doing. Those were the two strategies that went into the effort and it helped."

While Francis led the organizational effort, he gives all the credit for securing the final grant award to the applicants. In addition to the Montezuma Land Conservancy based in Cortez, the lead applicant on the grant, the towns of Ophir, Rico and Silverton were applicants, as was San Miguel County, Ouray County, San Juan County and Montezuma County. Other land conservation groups included the Trust for Land Restoration and the Trust for Public Land.

The 236-mile San Juan Skyway, which runs from Durango, north to Silverton and Ouray, across Dallas Divide to Placerville and up the San Miguel River canyon to Telluride, over Lizard Head Pass, through Rico, Dolores, Mancos and back to Durango, is considered to be one of the most beautiful drives in America. It spans elevations from 6,200 feet to over 11,000 feet and passes through five distinct life zones that offer a diversity of natural resources equivalent to ecosystems found from Alaska to Mexico. The route was the first byway to be selected as an official Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway and was recently designated as one of 26 All-American roads, the best of the best byways across the country, a list that includes Hwy. 1 along California's Big Sur Coast and the Seward Highway in Alaska.

The largest component of the project is the protection of the five ranches, two in the Dolores River Valley and three in the Mancos River Valley in Montezuma County, said Francis. The names of those ranches are confidential because of ongoing negotiations with the landowners.

"There are a lot of ranches in Montezuma County, but not that many large ranches in river valleys," said Nina Williams, executive director of the Montezuma Land Conservancy, which will oversee the ranch protection projects. The land conservancy hopes to place conservation easements on the ranches. "Most of Montezuma County is more arid, desert and lower in altitude. The Dolores River valley is very special."

In fact the Dolores River Valley and the Mancos River Valley have always been on the top of the land conservancy's list for protection because in an otherwise arid landscape, they offer productive soils and wildlife habitat.

"They are where the wildlife live and move through and they are where people want to live," said Williams. "Consequently these lands are expensive. That is why we pursued this grant." The Dolores River Valley is one of the last undeveloped river valleys on the Western Slope, Williams pointed out.

"This is a big change for us. We have never worked with buying conservation easements. Landowners have always donated them," said Williams. "By buying easements we can be more strategic and offer up compensation for landowners."

In addition to the five ranches in Montezuma County, the San Juan Skyway legacy project will also upgrade facilities at the Silverton-owned Molas Lake Park; consolidate ownership of the 50-acre Ouray Ice Park into one parcel owned by the Town of Ouray; purchase a conservation easement on an historic ranch north of Ouray; acquire big horn sheep breeding and winter habitat, also north of Ouray; and complete a section of the Galloping Goose Trail in Ilium Valley.

That section of the Galloping Goose, between where the single track from Ilium meets the Ilium Road downstream to the Church Camp, will be moved to the west side of the South Fork of the San Miguel River, said Linda Luther, open space and recreation coordinator for San Miguel County. The trail will follow the old railroad grade on the west side of the river to the Church Camp.