Pecos Canyon Conservation Easement

Thirty-seven years ago, Karina Hickey bought a lot overlooking the river in the Pecos River Retreats subdivision in Ilfeld, NM.  She built a house on it and started living there.  The undisturbed wild land around her with its thriving flora and fauna inspired her greatly.  Over the years she continued buying more contiguous lots to protect them from development.  Last year she donated 13 of those lots, 12.8 acres, to our 501(c)3 non-profit Pecos River Open Spaces inc.  This month we will complete the process of adding these lots, the “Rim Protection Area”, to our existing Pecos Canyon 16 conservation easement with the Santa Fe Conservation Trust.  The new expanded easement will be 29.104 acres called the Pecos Canyon Conservation Easement and will ensure that this land will be preserved in its natural condition in perpetuity.  We greatly appreciate Ms. Hickey’s vision and generosity.       

PROS members worked in late September 2025 to clear an old building and to do some maintenance work on the 12.8 acre land donation from Karina Hickey. She wishes for the land to be in conservation easement with no structures: the land returned to non-residential wild land in perpetuity.