The University of Colorado Boulder received a momentous 476-acre land gift, the Spruce Gulch Wildlife and Research Reserve, along with endowment funds to support ecological and academic work at the site, the university announced in a statement Tuesday.

The combined total value between the land gift and endowment given from CU alumna Linda Holubar Sanabria is $10.4 million, the university said.

The Spruce Gulch Wildlife and Research Reserve, however, is not open to the public.

According to the university, faculty and students at the university’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) have conducted research at Spruce Gulch for almost 25 years, and the gifts will support current and future on-site studies.

“The Spruce Gulch property has had a real impact on CU Boulder research studies over the years, and it’s inspiring to consider the ways in which this will continue to grow,” CU Boulder Chancellor Justin Schwartz said in the news release. “Through her land and endowment gifts, Linda Holubar is fostering hands-on learning opportunities and strengthening the university as a leading research institution.”

The land located in Boulder County was previously owned by members of Holubar’s family for almost 100 years.

According to the university, after inheriting the land in 1994 and managing it as a natural reserve since 2001, Holubar and her spouse, CU alumna Sergio Sanabria, concluded a conservation easement with the county prior to donating the site to CU Boulder.

“Our gift to the university was conditional on the easement and additional preservation terms,” Holubar said in the release. “Having grown up on this land and having it be a part of my family for almost a century, I view it as my heart and soul and want nothing more than to protect it.”

The symbiotic relationship the university has with the land began in 2001 when Holubar contacted Tim Seastedt, an ecology and evolutionary biology professor emeritus at INSTAAR, for assistance with an invasive plant on the land, according to the release. Their collaboration was successful and Holubar agreed to open up the land to CU Boulder researchers.

As of early 2025, the Spruce Gulch site has aided CU faculty and students in research for 29 scholarly publications, plus chapters in six doctoral dissertations, three master’s theses and four undergraduate honors theses.

“The history of CU’s environmental efforts includes some of the largest and most significant contributions to our understanding of high-elevation systems,” Seastedt said. “The acquisition of Spruce Gulch now allows us to pursue essential science relevant to the grasslands and foothills region, where most of us live. Therein lies the magnitude of this gift.”

To read more about the Spruce Gulch Wildlife and Research Reserve, visit the reserve’s site here.