Taos Land Trust acquires 144 acres for conservation easement

Short-term vision for El Salto includes wildfire mitigation projects, mapping ecosystem for permanent protections

TAOS — Tom Worrell’s 144-acre property on Paw-A-Suki Road in El Salto sat on the market for almost two decades until Taos Land Trust acquired it last month for $1.55 million in what the land trust called its “largest property acquisition by acres and dollars in over 20 years.”

“I was three months into my position, still trying to figure things out, and then this just fell into my lap,” said Darien Fernandez, Taos Land Trust executive director. Fernandez took the position in April 2024; in July, he received a call from a neighbor in El Salto who asked if Taos Land Trust could negotiate a way to preserve the property and restrict it from future development.

“Three weeks later, like total Taos magic, we got a call from a different neighbor who had ties to the [River Branch Foundation], and she was interested in our ability to take this on,” Fernandez said. “So we sat down with her, started putting together some ideas of what could be done to preserve the property. The idea was floated about us purchasing it.”

They closed the deal Dec. 18, he said. Paw-A-Suki Road is off El Salto Road, and the property stretches up the mountain where, according to the land trust, at “the ridgeline, the property meets the Wheeler Peak Wilderness to the north. Looking south, one can see the Town of Taos, the ancient Pedernal volcanic mesa, and the sharp and craggy Truchas peaks.”

Worrell, an eco-conscious real estate developer, was revitalizing old adobes and developing properties in the Taos area in the 2000s, including the $70 million El Monte Sagrado resort, but more or less pulled out of the area several years ago. In a kind of coda to his Taos activity, the Worrell Foundation provided an undisclosed amount of money to the land trust to help buy his El Salto property.

A majority of the funds came from the River Branch Foundation, a philanthropic family foundation out of Florida with family connections in El Salto. Other neighbors and land trust board members pitched in to reach the final sale price.

The El Salto property was one of Worrell’s last major holdings in Taos, according to John Cancro, managing and qualifying broker with Taos Properties.

Cancro was Worrell’s representative in the most recent land trust deal but worked with him on many projects over the years. He called the sale “bittersweet” because of the years Worrell spent here. Cancro also called the sale “thrilling,” noting Taos Land Trust’s purchase of the property for community-oriented use is “what [Worrell] was always all about.”

Jamie Baldonado has lived on Paw-ASuki Road next to Worrell’s proposed development since 1996. He reached out to Ernie Atencio — former executive director of the land trust — about the property seven years ago.

Baldonado told Atencio about the Worrell property, and they discussed creating a conservation easement proposal to present to Worrell. The momentum Baldonado felt after his conversation with Atencio came to a screeching halt, however, when Atencio’s successor at the land trust, current Democratic state Rep. Kristina Ortez, “flat out said no to the conservation easement idea.”

Ortez told The Taos News that during her tenure at Taos Land Trust, she was focused on organizational priorities, and while the organization “didn’t do a lot of conservation easements,” it was not official policy to not approach landowners.

Under her leadership, Taos Land Trust acquired land to create Rio Fernando Park, effectively expanding wetland protections adjacent to Fred Baca Park.

The short-term vision for the El Salto land revolves around much-needed wildfire mitigation projects and cataloging the property’s ecosystem in preparation to enact a conservation easement to permanently protect the 144 acres from development.

The property’s forested landscape has become dangerously overgrown over the past couple of decades and requires thinning and other treatments. The risk of wildfire is as much of a concern to neighbors as was potential development.

Fernandez noted the whole El Salto area, with its rugged terrain and limited road access, is a top priority under Taos County’s current wildfire protection plan. The Enchanted Circle is among the nation’s top 20 most at-risk landscapes for catastrophic wildfire.

In the long term, both Fernandez and Baldonado emphasized the importance of proceeding slowly and taking cues from stakeholders to identify a vision for the property’s future use.

Marco Alarid White, president of El Salto del Agua Land Association Inc., said in a statement, “We wholeheartedly support the mission of the Taos Land Trust and we welcome any efforts to preserve and protect the land of Northern New Mexico.”

Fernandez hopes the successful acquisition in El Salto will restore community confidence in the land trust, which he acknowledged had not recently been focused on new land and conservation easements. He also said it should inspire new interest in land conservation opportunities across the county and the state.

“We were the first land trust in the state of New Mexico, and the first conservation easement in the state is right down the road [at the Frank Waters house]. We see this as going back to our roots [and] as a means to reengage the community around the stewardship work that we do.”