ABOUT US

Water, Land and Wildlife Conservation

Reservations: 1-800-698-0603
970-533-7592
 bookings@willowtailsprings.com

Stewardship of the land continues to be our passion, our meditation, our magic, our breath, our practice and our reward.  We hope that it will in some small way be yours when you visit us and that you will hold a part of its' bountiful and creative spirit.
One of the many joys of a stay at Willowtail Springs is to wander, hike or drift through a property, which has become a wildlife property and bird sanctuary.
 

Late summer hints of autumn.
Reflected yellow masses in the woods near the lake.
Chartreuse laps surfaces of emerald green.
Light feet touching,
Shivering,
Vibrate for a split piece of time.

Between flat shadows,
Between the pause color takes
Before Dark,
Before the display of moonrise,
A rare moment hovers.
Peggy Cloy

Water is a precious commodity in the Southwest.  Willowtail Springs continues to find ways to conserve as well as utilize this resource to its greatest advantage.  Lee has been called a "water wizard", a term which is rather close to the truth.  He began with several "water gifts"; such as a large lake, fed by a spring, as well as irrigation and run-off.  The property came with irrigation rights on a ditch and we have been fortunate to add adjudicated water rights to our land in order to utilize some of the "transient water" which flows through our land.  Lee has made the most of this incredible gift.  One of his projects was the installation of a catch basin to gather our ditch water, which comes in at the top section of our property, and pipe it 600 feet to the lake or other parts of the land.  Even in the worst year of the drought, our lake did not go down more than a couple of feet.
Now, as the rain and snowfall has become more "normal" we can distribute this life giving resource in a steady way to our entire forest, our meadows and our cultivated gardens.

Our "ditch water" will be piped next year, part of a program through NRCS, [National  Resources Conservation Service]. This will increase the efficiency of delivery and cut down on the salinity build-up of an open ditch.  We will also be part of a Federal "On Farm" Project to provide better water delivery to our property in the form of a wildlife pond and extra water delivery system from the new pipe.
We are deeply indebted to Bob Fuller for his vision in developing these programs.

There are many paths and trails through this land, some wild, some mild.
We are also surrounded by other properties, some private and some public, where further exploration is encouraged.
We have planted many new native species of grasses, bushes and flowers in an already beautiful land.

Wander through cultivated perennial gardens, called affectionately by a friend, "Seattle East".
Walk peacefully in the wilder woods, next to streams, meadows and rock outcroppings.
Take time to appreciate nature's small vignettes and miracles of design as well as her larger magnificence.

Our ancient pinion and juniper forest became center stage when our area was attacked by the IPS pine bark beetle.  Some of you are aware of the devastating effects of drought, which touched most of the west.  Our particular land was spared from the fires, which devastated some of our area.  We are blessed with water from many sources at Willowtail Springs and have been blessed with more rain and snowfall moisture the last few years.  However, we have experienced, along with much of the west, the effects of various bark beetles which destroyed, in a very short time, everything in its path, including ancient pinion and ponderosa trees, some of which were 500-1500 years old.  Everyone in Colorado, including the State Forest Service, with its enormous knowledge of Entomology, as well as arborists, spray applicators, private land owners and public communities, have dealt with this  huge issue a little differently.  They have advocated a variety of remedies and preventatives, all of which were somewhat experimental and always costly.  The learning curve has taken many forms for dealing with a killer pest, which had never gone quite so berserk, or been so brutal, and for which no one knew quite how to stop or slow down.  We gambled our savings and for over three years battled to save 7,500 pinion and 300 ponderosa pines.  Five years later, it seems we have won.

Forest Bones,
Sculpted air,
Mystery covering ancient ground,
Waiting for a slight shift in light,
In grace,
To see magic
To see God.
Peggy Cloy

Two years before the worst of the drought in 2002, Willowtail Springs chose a fairly radical and experimental approach, which has been watched closely and is still in progress.  The result, so far, is that we have saved most of our trees and continue to monitor and care for them closely. We have done everything possible to protect our environmental concerns and beliefs.  At this time we seem to have more birds and butterflies than before we began this process.  We are encouraged.
We have been privileged to become an unofficial "educational site", and to have had the tremendous input of advice and encouragement from people much more knowledgeable than we were, specifically, Dave Leatherman, State of Colorado Entomologist, David Temple, owner of Animas Arborist, the Colorado State Forest Service and the US Forest Service.  We were grateful and humbled to be the only private property in the Montezuma County to receive a grant for our work as part of a fire mitigation program.  We also were part of another program to reseed in areas where trees were lost.
We have been laughingly called "Willowtail Springs Pinion and Ponderosa Museum", a title which both Lee and I are quite happy to hold.

"What a truly remarkable oasis you have claimed.  You have thought of everything so beautifully."
James and Lucretia
 Denver, Colorado

"A Findhorn Garden, a holy place of beauty that feeds the places we forget to nurture.  A presence is found in every nook and cranny, in every exquisite detail, which expands one's own potential."
Cyncie and Chuck
Aurora, Colorado

Willowtail Springs
P.O. Box 89 · Mancos, Colorado 81328

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