The nearly 3,400-acre portion of the privately owned Tolland Ranch being proposed to be covered by a government-purchased conservation easement “is critically important for wildlife movement to and from adjacent (National) Forest Service lands,” according to a memo to Boulder County’s Parks and Open Space Committee.
The Toll property lies in Boulder and Gilpin counties south of the Eldora Mountain Resort, in an area east of the Moffat Tunnel’s east portal and west of Rollinsville.
It’s one of the largest private landholdings east of Colorado’s section of the Continental Divide and is the largest private property in the South Boulder Creek watershed, said Janis Whisman, Boulder County Parks and Open Space Department’s real estate division manager.
The property contains a 4-mile stretch of South Boulder Creek as well as land in the Middle Boulder Creek watershed. It lies within Roosevelt National Forest and is adjacent to the 14,000-acre James Peak Wilderness Area.
The property provides summer, winter and severe-winter range for elk. Whisman said about 100 elk from the Winiger Range herd use the Toll property as transitional range and for calving, including on south-facing hillsides above South Boulder Park.
“The property is critical for migration of this elk herd, which winters around Gross Reservoir, returns to South Boulder Park in April and May and moves west to the James Peak Wilderness Area in July,” Whisman wrote the advisory committee.
Whisman said the Toll property also provides summer range for mule deer, habitat for black bear, mountain lion and moose, and potential habitat for the Canada lynx and the boreal toad.
Whisman said the South Boulder Creek valley known as South Boulder Park is montane parkland with willow cars that have the highest breeding bird densities of any habitat in the Colorado Front Range mountains.
The most common bird species found in the area include the Wilson’s warbler, MacGillivray’s warbler, yellow warbler, dusky flycatcher, black-headed grosbeak, Lincoln’s sparrow, fox sparrow and song sparrow.
South Boulder Creek is also historic range for the greenback cutthroat trout, which Whisman noted is listed by the federal and state governments as threatened and has been extirpated from much of its native habitat. She said the upper portion of South Boulder Creek is a potential location for reintroducing that trout species.
Whisman said that due its its abundance of willows, South Boulder Park also has become a concentrated area for moose.
“The Toll property is central to the history of the South Boulder Creek valley and the historic town site of Tolland,” Whisman said. “hard rock miners were very active in the area, and the property contains several mines, including the Little Mary Alice, Lulu, Miss Ben, Dane Gergeanna and the BHD Placer.”
The most lucrative mining was done through placer mining of South Boulder Creek, Whisman said, where the total amount of gold mined in the district through 1959 was probably about 35,000 ounces.
“The Toll property is surrounded by some of Colorado’s most popular national forest destinations, including the James Peak Wilderness and Indian Peaks Wilderness areas,” Whisman said.
She said scenic views of the Toll property “are part of the experience for thousands who visit these destinations for a wide range of outdoor activities, and the 360,000 annual passengers who ride Amtrak’s California Zephyr on its route between Chicago and San Francisco.
Tourists rode the Moffat rail line by the thousands, stopping at the historic town of Tolland for lunch, after the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific Railway built its switch-backing “Giant’s Ladder” across the Continental Divide in 1904, Whisman said.
The Moffat Tunnel was completed in 1928, establishing rail access to coal reserves and a continental route for freight and passengers still in use today.
Whisman said that for several decades, part of the Toll property has been leased to Eldora Mountain Resort, which she said operates a system of 65 miles of Nordic ski trails for cross–country skiing, skate skiing and snowshoeing.
Contact Times-Call staff writer John Fryar at 303-684-5211 or jfryar@times-call.com
