About three months after The Conservation Fund acquired about 300 acres of land on Mount Democrat near Alma, it has conveyed the property to public ownership to be managed by the Pike-San Isabel National Forests & Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands.
This resolves a long-standing logistical challenge that centered around access through private land to the 14,155-foot peak, while also eliminating liability concerns.
Previously, the land belonged to Earth Energy Resources LLC, which is represented by John Reiber. Reiber had closed access to his land over liability concerts multiple times, including as recently as March of this year.
He reopened it this summer with an innovative QR-code based waiver system in which recreators would agree not to sue if they were injured on Reiber’s property.
In September, The Conservation Fund, a nonprofit that works to protect land and water across the United States, acquired the land around the Kite Lake Trailhead as well as land along the Mount Democrat Trail and the mountain’s peak. The Conservation Fund made this purchase from Reiber with the plan to work to transfer it to the U.S. Forest Service at a later time in 2023.
That happened this month.
Read more here: https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/mount-democrat-trail-and-summit-near-alma-is-now-property-of-the-usfs