Sabinoso Wilderness Area in New Mexico, an inaccessible and tiny refuge just five years ago, has grown by almost 10,000 acres, or 50% of its total size, after receiving the largest gift in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) history.

The Cañon Ciruela property was donated by the Trust for Public Land which works to create public spaces from private donations all over America, and was a follow up from another much smaller donation made in 2017 in an effort to grow Sabinoso out from the confines of private landholdings which surrounded it.

Described as “a series of high, narrow mesas surrounded by cliff-lined canyons,” the BLM, who manages wilderness areas in the U.S, called the property “rugged country primarily [of] piñon pine and juniper woodlands with occasional clusters of ponderosa pine. A perennial warm season grass savanna is found on the mesa tops. Streams periodically flow in the canyon bottoms supporting riparian vegetation including willow and cottonwood.”