Santa Fe, New Mexico — A new conservation agreement will preserve the scenic desert lands that inspired the works of 20th-century painter Georgia O’Keeffe and ensure visitors have access to a nearby educational resort, several of the agreement’s partners announced Tuesday.
The plan’s initial stages create conservation easements across about 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) of land, owned by the charitable arm of the Presbyterian Church (USA), on the outskirts of the village of Abiquiu.
This easement extends across the reservoir’s waterfront and local grasslands to the doorstep of a remote house owned by O’Keefe’s estate, a few miles from her larger home and studio in Abiquiu. Both houses are located outside the conservation area and are owned and managed separately Georgia O’Keefe Museum In Santa Fe.
The view from the pasture should be familiar to even casual O’Keeffe fans—including desert washes, sandstone cliffs, and the distant mountain silhouette of Cerro Pedernal.
“The stark, colorful geology, the verdant pastures that extend right down to the Chama River and Lake Abiquiu — all make it a multi-faceted place with tremendous conservation value,” said Jonathan Hayden, executive director of the New Mexico Land Conservancy, which helped broker the conservation plan and will oversee the easement.
Hayden said the volunteer plan protects against potential encroachment by modern development that could lead to subdivision and conversion of the property, although no proposals are imminent.
The land within the preliminary easement has been the backdrop for film sets for decades, including wartime remakes Los Alamos in the 2024 hit film “Oppenheimer, “On a temporary film set that remains.
The conservation agreement ensures continued access to film production, as well as the preservation of traditional winter grazing by farmers who guide their small herds from the mountains as the snow arrives.
The state of New Mexico is supporting this initiative in large part through a fund established by state lawmakers in 2023.
An approved state award of $920,000 is set aside for easement surveys, transaction costs and a financial fund that the Presbyterian Church Foundation will use — while retaining ownership of the properties — to support programs at the nearby Ghost Ranch Education School. & Retreat center and use for conservation area.
The center attracts about 10,000 visitors a year to overnight spiritual, artistic and literary retreats for people of all faiths, with twice as many day visitors, said David Evans, the centre’s chief executive.
The first two phases of the conservation plan are part of a broader plan to protect more than 30 square miles (78 square kilometers) of the area through conservation easements and public land transfers, with support from at least one wildlife foundation. This would extend protection to the banks of the Chama River and preserve additional wildlife habitat.
Many Native American communities trace their ancestors to the area in northern New Mexico where O’Keeffe settled and explored the landscape in her work.