While not nearly well known for his biophilia as Billionaire Ted Turner(who owns 2 million protected acres of Ranch lands across the USA), Paul Vahldiek's HIGH LONESOME RANCH northeast of Grand Junction, Colorado is big enough at 260,000 acres(394 square miles) to be a national park..........."These are not exactly untouched lands—some portions have been homesteaded and grazed for more than 100 years—but they’re largely undeveloped"............."The High Lonesome Ranch extends from the desert washes near Highline State Park to Douglas firs atop 9,000-foot Middle Mountain to the beaver ponds of the North Dry Fork valley"..............."If these private lands were deeded to the U.S. Department of the Interior as a national park, they would become America’s 27th largest unit—ranking right behind Rocky Mountain National Park in size"..............."Vahldiek, however, doesn’t want his private property to be like BLM lands or national parks"............."He believes he can do better"..........."Old school and self made, the son of a butcher, Vahldiek lost his mother to lupus when he was 11 years old".........."Coming out of High School, he accepted a scholarship to Trinity University in San Antonio, where he majored in business and played basketball"................."He also made a pact with his college roommate: The first one to buy a ranch would invite the other to come hunting. (Vahldiek was first.)".............. "He parlayed a degree from another San Antonio school, St. Mary’s University School of Law, into a highly lucrative career in personal injury litigation".................."He bought HIGH LONESOME with the goal of improving his hunting grounds by repairing the eroded streams and overgrazed fields".............."Some of what he’d learned came from his participation in the venerable Boone and Crockett Club, whose meetings attract some of conservation’s brightest minds (Vahldiek is one of around 100 regular members who, like the club’s co-founder Theodore Roosevelt, pledge to devote their means and influence to conservation)"..............But how to keep his open space intact for generations to come and fulfill his Roosevelt pledge?...............A innovative combination of select gas extraction combined with best ecosystem sustainability practices and ecotourism has earned him praises from great individual consultants and conservation leaders, ranging from Michael Soulé to Cristina Eisenberg to Shane Mahoney, Roger Creasey, David Ford and Rose Letwin...........Click on the link below to read in full the Conservation vision of Paul Vahldiek

http://www.5280.com/2018/01/a-modest-proposal/

A Modest Proposal

The High Lonesome Ranch in western Colorado is big enough to be a national park, but its owners, led by Paul Vahldiek Jr., don’t take their cues from the government. Instead, they’ve developed a unique approach to land management that could revolutionize the conservation movement for both private and public open spaces.

BY KELLY BASTONE | 5280 FEBRUARY 2018

Paul Vahldiek Jr.

The High Lonesome Ranch’s 260,000 acres are largely undeveloped and home to a variety of wildlife, pristine fishing holes, and beaver ponds. Photo by David Clifford

The owners of  High Lonesome encourage shooting and hunting. Photo by Mark Lance / Courtesy of High Lonesome Ranch

Ranch structures, including a greenhouse. Photo by Russ Schnitzer / Courtesy of High Lonesome Ranch

View a video of Paul Vahldiek's vision of conservation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Vi7nsz1wc