Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is now bigger.

That’s thanks to the transfer of 9,362 acres of surrounding ranch land, as recently celebrated by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and National Park Service Director Chuck Sams during a visit to the San Luis Valley. The Nature Conservancy sold the large portion of Medano Ranch for about $4.2 million in a deal funded by the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

In a news release, Haaland credited the Great Sand Dunes and The Nature Conservancy for building “a model of collaboration that will help guarantee that future generations have access to this special place.”

That would likely be on a limited basis, the park’s superintendent, Pam Rice, said in an interview.

“There’s resources out there that take special care, and we would have to go through a whole planning process to open it up to general visitation, as well as a lot of improvement to roads and addressing safety issues,” she said. “I think the most realistic thing would be looking into opening that area up to guided activities.”

After acquiring Medano Ranch in 1999, The Nature Conservancy went on to manage a bison herd that roams the land today – about 1,700 head, Rice said, not counting the latest offspring. She said the herd is part of a broad, federal analysis looking into the DNA makeup of the historic species.

“That genetic study will help determine whether or not (The Nature Conservancy) bison will remain,” Rice said. “But the hope is for us to reintroduce a wild herd on to the landscape and be part of that larger, national conservation effort of bison.”

She recognized that would require “significant staff resources.” The Nature Conservancy, however, is permitted to continue its operation for up to seven years. 

Also of note on the property, Rice said, are “important springs and wetlands that support a rich diversity” and contribute to the formation of North America’s biggest sand dunes. Those form by sand, water and wind.

“You have these sand sheets where occasionally you have small dunes moving across that landscape,” Rice said.

Medano Ranch was part of the overall mosaic envisioned for Great Sand Dunes National Park at the time of The Nature Conservancy’s acquisition 23 years ago. At the time, the dunes were protected as a monument while a grassroots initiative worked to establish a bigger national park. The idea was to protect the boundaries while the government wheels turned.

Great Sand Dunes National Park was officially established in 2004.

“It just took a while for us to kind of get our turn for Land and Water Conservation funds,” Rice said.

Now the park will wait for the remaining 3,192 acres of the ranch. That’s in the works, according to a Nature Conservancy news release.

The organization’s director of resilient lands in the state, Nancy Fishbein, was quoted in the release. She called protecting the ranch “and contributing to the creation of the national park among the most significant successes in the history of TNC in Colorado.”