Georgia O’Keeffe’s views of the New Mexico desert will be preserved with conservation plan

SANTA FE N M AP A new conservation agreement will preserve land with breathtaking desert vistas that inspired the work of th century painter Georgia O Keeffe and ensure visitors access to an adjacent educational retreat several partners to the pact informed Tuesday Initial phases of the plan establish a conservation easement across about square miles square kilometers of land owned by a charitable arm of Presbyterian Church U S A on the outskirts of the village of Abiquiu That easement stretches across reservoir waterfront and native grasslands to the doorstep of a remote home owned by O Keeffe s estate a scant miles from her larger home and studio in Abiquiu Both homes are outside the conservation area and owned and managed separately by the Georgia O Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe The view from the rangeland should be familiar to even casual O Keeffe afficionados including desert washes sandstone bluffs and the distant mountain silhouette of Cerro Pedernal The stark colorful geology the verdant grasslands going right down to the Chama River and Abiquiu lake all that just makes it such a multifaceted place with tremendous conservation value declared Jonathan Hayden executive director of the New Mexico Land Conservancy that helped broker the conservation plan and will oversee easements Hayden commented the voluntary plan guards against the prospective encroachment of modern evolution that might subdivide and transform the property though there are not any imminent proposals Land within an initial easement has been the backdrop to movie sets for decades including a recreation of wartime Los Alamos in the hit film Oppenheimer on a temporary movie set that still stands The conservation agreement guarantees particular continued access for film productions as well as preserving traditional winter grazing for farmers who usher small herds down from the mountains as snow arrives The state of New Mexico is substantially underwriting the initiative though a trust created by state lawmakers in An approved state award is being set aside for easement surveys transaction costs and a financial nest-egg that the Presbyterian Church Foundation will use while retaining property ownership to advocacy activities at the adjacent Ghost Ranch Schooling Retreat Center and its use of the conservation area The center attracts about visitors a year to overnight spiritual artistic and literary retreats for people of all faiths with twice as multiple day visitors disclosed center CEO David Evans Two initial phases of the conservation plan are part of a broader plan to protect more than square miles square kilometers of the area through conservation easements and general land transfers with the help of at least one wildlife foundation That would extend protections to the banks of the Chama River and preserve additional wildlife habitat A large number of Native American communities trace their ancestry to the area in northern New Mexico where O Keeffe settled and explored the landscape in her work Source