MONTE VISTA — As part of office consolidation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be closing its outdated office in Monte Vista. 

The closure does not affect any of the wildlife refuges in the area and all of the impacted employees have already been reassigned to the Alamosa office on El Rancho Lane. The Monte Vista office at 6120 S. Highway 15 was not open to the public or for visitor services. In April, the wildlife service held a grand opening of the new Alamosa office on April 19. 

Milke Oldham, Project Leader, San Luis NWR Complex, told the Valley Courier the closure, “The management of the refuge, how we operate it, the wetlands, the birds, nothing is going to change except for closing down and demolishing the office building and three residences. 

Oldham said that after the passage of the Great Outdoors Act, “The big backlog of maintenance projects was too high and we needed to reduce the number of old things so you don’t need to keep repairing them.” 

Oldham added that across the nation federal land agencies eliminated the use of facilities where the repair costs were prohibitive, and the Monte Vista office fit into that category. 

“The building here in Monte Vista used to be the old garage and it was remodeled into an office in 1954, I believe. When we did a conditional assessment of the building we said, ‘we can’t throw any more money into it,’ as it is beyond the shelf life, and that is when the determination was made to build a brand new building office.” 

Federal agencies, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, US Forest Service all had a huge inventory of unfunded deferred maintenace projects in the billions of dollars. In 2020, President Trump signed legislation, The Great Outdoors Act into law to provide funding to relieve the backlog. The act was hailed by many including Theresa Pierno, CEO of the National Parks and Conservation Association who said, “This bill is a conservationist’s dream.” 

According to the USFWS, since 2020 funds from the act totaling $378 million have supported work on 38 wildlife refuges nationally in protecting 120 at-risk species. 

The wildlife service will build a bunkhouse/apartment on the Alamosa Refuge and a duplex on the Baca refuge soon said Oldham. 

“We’re building a few things, and we are also getting rid of a few things.” 

The residence demolishing in Monte Vista and construction on the Baca and Alamosa refuges will happen sometime in 2026.  

All wildlife service refuges are open to the public. On Saturday, Oct. 12, a guided walk, “Plants Water, & Cranes Oh My,” will be led by Suzanne Beauchaine with USFWS from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The event is free and RSVP to Ruthanne Johnson, SLV Chapter Chair Colorado Native Plant Society at nativeplants4wildlife@gmail.com 

San Luis Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex Visitor Center and Headquarters Office is at 7824 El Rancho Lane, Alamosa.