Trees Ranch, a 2,066-acre ecologically-rich property surrounded by Zion National Park and the Canaan Wilderness Area in Springdale, Utah, was recently sold by Mirr Ranch Group of Denver, Colo. Listed for $25 million, the conservation property sold to a private party. The sellers are the heirs of Jim Trees, founder, former chairman and CEO of Fischer, Francis, Trees and Watts, Inc., and the heirs of Lionel Pincus, founder of Warburg Pincus, LLC.
“We are pleased to have found a buyer who will be a good steward of the land, a legacy started by Jim Trees and Lionel Pincus many years ago. They saw the ranch as an opportunity to have a national park of their own, and it looks like that legacy will continue,” said listing broker, Ken Mirr.
The Trees Ranch transaction comes on the heels of other Mirr Ranch Group sales adjoining National Parks, such as the Mantle Ranch, an inholding in Dinosaur National Monument. Furthermore, the Sandy Ranch, a cattle ranch adjoining Capitol Reef National Park with large grazing allotments on the adjoining Dixie National Forest and BLM lands, is currently on the market.
“This sale adds to Mirr Ranch Group’s proven track record of marketing and selling ranches and conservation properties in the West including those adjoining National Parks, National Forests and other public lands. We are the leading brokerage for these types of unique properties,” added Mirr.
The distinctiveness of Trees Ranch is reflected by its scenic landscapes, rare flora and fauna, valuable water rights, a 60-acre lake, miles of riparian corridors and river, irrigated fields and orchards, and inimitable architecture. In addition to access and adjacency to the park and wilderness, the ranch’s significant conservation values include Utah’s first “Wild and Scenic” designation on the adjoining Virgin River and Shunes Creek, its adjacency to a “Natural Research Area” in Parunuweap Canyon, and significant historical and cultural sites like the Shunesburg settlement and traces of the Virgin Anasazi and Paiute Indians.
“The Trees Ranch is one of the most unique ranch properties in the Southwestern United States. The ranch’s proximity to Zion National Park makes it the ultimate conservation and recreation property – a true one of a kind,” explains Jason Corzine of The Trust for Public Land.