Dethlefsen

The Dethlefsen property is located in the eastern foothills of the Black Range, approximately ten miles southwest of Winston, NM, adjacent to the Gila National Forest, and about three miles from the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Area. The landowners, Lyle and Vera Dethlefsen acquired the property in 1966 and lived out their senior years there, for the most part off the grid. They didn’t really hunt or grow all their own food―once a month they went to town for groceries―but all their power was solar-generated, and although they did have a well, most of their water was collected from the roof. And to this day, there still is no TV or Internet service onsite.

The Dethlefsen conservation easement, completed in November 2004, was one of NMLC’s earliest projects.

Vera Dethlefsen died a few years prior to Lyle, who passed away on March 14, 2019. Upon his death, he willed property to the Northern Jaguar Project, a nonprofit organization based in Tucson, AZ, dedicated to saving the jaguar in the Southwest. NMLC will continue to steward the easement on the property and provide annual monitoring services.