The Grand Canyon Trust and Conservation Fund on Wednesday announced the completion of the $4.5 million purchase, which will include 1,000 acres of deeded land and 850,000 acres in grazing allotments managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service and the Arizona State Land Department.

"The purchase of the Kane and Two Mile ranches demonstrates one of the most important and innovative public-private conservation efforts of our time," Mike Ford, the Conservation Fund's Nevada and Southwest director, said in a statement. "Thanks to the leadership, vision and support of our partners, we will be able to do our part to make sure that this spectacular landscape and vital wildlife habitat will be preserved for future generations."

The purchase from the Kane Ranch Land Stewardship and Cattle Co. got a final boost last April via a $1 million donation from Wal-Mart, which identified the ranches as a "priority wildlife habitat" and one of six projects it donated to initially as part of a $35 million partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Conservation Fund raised $3.5 million toward the purchase. The Grand Canyon Trust raised $1.5 million and will manage the property as a working cattle ranch.

"The vast majority of the public lands making up the ranches are public lands designated for multiple use," said Rick Moore, director of the Kane and Two Mile ranches program for the Grand Canyon Trust. "As a conservation group, we are interested in making sure that our livestock operation truly fits within the multiple use philosophy, while at the same time helping the agencies manage for public lands values such as the protection of rare species, good management of wildlife habitat, conservation of archeological sites, providing opportunities for low-impact recreation, and values embodied by wilderness and national monument designations."

The Kane and Two Mile ranches properties lie about two miles northwest of Grand Canyon National Park's Marble Canyon Section and 25 miles north of the park's North Rim. It is just west of the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument.

"There are a lot of potential opportunities to work with them," said David Boyd, spokesman for the BLM's Arizona Strip District Office. "But because there have been some concerns, we want to emphasize that these allotments will continue to be grazed. They won't be taken out of circulation. But it's certainly a new era for these [conservation] groups. They're in the cattle business now."

jbaird@sltrib.com