Pelican Lake Ranch: Wildlife oasis on the plains

Flocks of sandhill and whooping cranes descended on Pelican Lake Ranch, a community of homes east of Platteville in unincorporated Weld County, on a recent fall afternoon.

The next morning, residents journeyed outside together to watch the cranes on Milton Reservoir, located on the edge of the subdivision, before the migratory birds flew south for the winter.

“It’s one of the high points of living out here,´ said Cindy Lair, a resident of Pelican Lake Ranch. “To listen to those birds as they were descending upon the reservoir made it a pretty phenomenal day in the five years we’ve lived here.”

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The birds – not just cranes but also the eponymous pelicans, eagles and others that can be seen in the area year-round – are one reason the residents of Pelican Lake Ranch are anticipating the creation of a nature preserve around Lake Christina, a 22-acre lake in the 3,500-acre custom-home community.

In the planning stages for more than a year, the preserve will include hiking and horse trails, picnic areas, bird estuaries, interpretive signs, restrooms and boardwalks, all around the lake that will also be available for fishing and canoeing.

The $500,000 project is being financed through two metropolitan districts that make up the subdivision, plus revenue from taxes on oil and gas drilling that occurs on portions of the land within the development.

“I think the nature preserve is going to put this area on the map,´ said Christine Hethcock, development manager for Pelican Lake Ranch. “It’s going to be like going to a national park without leaving the county.”

Homes on the prairie

Pelican Lake Ranch – not to be confused with the Pelican Lakes Golf Course development at Water Valley in Windsor – actually started in the early 1980s, although the first homes weren’t sold in the area until 1999.

The first developers envisioned the large lots with views of the mountains and prairie, seven miles away from the nearest towns of Platteville and LaSalle, as ideal for horse owners. Today about 20 percent of the 50 homeowners in Pelican Lake Ranch have horses, Hethcock said.

The original developers, who sold the project to current owners REI LLC in 2001, built an equestrian jump course that has since been abandoned. Hethcock said there are plans to preserve the course, although it would exist as a historic area, not be opened to riders again. The development also has two outdoor riding arenas, and plans for the future include a new equestrian center.  

Over the past several years, the subdivision’s metropolitan districts – taxing districts that provide infrastructure and recreation in unincorporated areas – have built a swimming pool, cabana and playground in Pelican Lake Ranch.

The improvements are all part of making the subdivision a better place to live, said Steve Cooper, chairman of Metropolitan District 1.

“The goal is twofold,” he said. “It’s to make an attractive community for the people who already live here. But it’s also to get more people interested in wanting to live here.”

The residents of Pelican Lake Ranch will have free access to the nature preserve. It will also be open to the general public through annual passes, although the fee for those has not yet been determined, Hethcock said. Organizations, such as the Girl and Boy Scouts or birding groups, will be able to use the area for special events by contacting one of the metropolitan districts, she said.

Some of the areas, though, will remain closed to any access, including residents. That’s necessary to maintain the wildlife habitat, said Lair, who is also program manager for the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s State Conservation Board. She has lent her expertise in managing parks and open space to the nature preserve project where she lives.

Bird and wildlife sanctuary

The idea for a nature preserve came from the fact that the lakes and smaller ponds within the development are already sanctuaries for birds and other prairie wildlife, Cooper said.

The first phase of creating a nature preserve was to deepen the northern part of Lake Christina to create a better habitat for fish. That dredging, completed last February, allows fish to survive in the lake in the winter. Previously it was so shallow the entire lake would freeze over in cold weather, Lair said.

The fish also attract waterfowl. Birds in the area include a mating pair of eagles.

“The bird habitat in the area is some of the best along the Front Range,” Lair said.

The next phase is to build restroom facilities, picnic shelters and five miles of trails, set to be completed next summer. Construction on the boardwalks and restored equestrian jump course is scheduled for the winter of 2008-09, Hethcock said.

Hethcock said she hopes the preserve will attract birding groups and others who are thus far unaware of what exists out on the prairie.

“I think it will be a big draw when people realize what’s out there,” she said.