Larimer County Natural Resources announced Tuesday the conservation of an 884-acre ranch in northern Larimer County that has been home to a local family for more than 30 years.

The conservation easement, in partnership with landowners Mark and Candee Steputis, was funded by a donation from the Steputis family and a grant from the Great Outdoors Colorado Laramie Foothills Expansion.

Over the decades, the Steputis family has managed the forest of the Little Ponderosa Ranch and gradually acquired additional small parcels of land that compose the ranch.

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“As a longtime resident and owner, I am comforted in the knowledge that our property will remain intact without being subdivided while protecting wildlife habitat for the natural world,” Mark Steputis said. “Just as we found it in 1987.”

The Little Ponderosa Ranch contains scenic rolling grasslands, ponderosa pine forest, rock outcroppings and essential wildlife habitats west of Red Mountain Open Space, Larimer County Natural Resources said.

“The Steputis family is tremendously generous to have the foresight to protect this habitat and landscape from parceled development,” said Meegan Flenniken with Larimer County Natural Resources.

The GOCO Laramie Foothills Expansion Grant was created to bolster local conservation efforts in Larimer County and the city of Fort Collins.

The Little Ponderosa Ranch