California Rangeland Trust
California Rangeland Trust is a nonprofit organization founded in 1998 by a group of innovative ranchers committed to conservation. The Rangeland Trust is now the largest land trust in California, having conserved nearly 300,000 acres (1,200 km2) of rangeland on 61 ranches across 24 counties.
Private rangeland permanently protected by a conservation easement provides all the natural resource values of publicly owned land, but the valuable stewardship is provided a little or no cost to the public. In addition, privately conserved lands remain on the tax roll to support our schools and other important services.
The Rangeland Trust remains focused on the highest standards of professional practices and is a Land Trust Alliance accredited organization, acting as bridge between its constituencies and maintaining personal relationships with all its partners. It coordinates different types of conservation easements, matching funding sources to easement conservation values. The availability of public funding has vastly diminished, and is even more difficult to obtain in rural localities than urban ones, while the need is equally as great in both. In California, there are over 22 million acres (89,000 km2) of privately owned rangeland. The Rangeland Trust is actively looking for funding sources for the over 400,000 acres (1,600 km2) of rangeland on the waiting list.
The Rangeland Trust uses conservation easements as the tool to conserve rangeland properties. Working in close partnership with each property owner, the Rangeland Trust develops a customized legal agreement that inventories the land’s agricultural, scenic, historical, and wildlife values and seeks to maintain the highest standards of animal husbandry and food production in a setting that sustains agriculture and habitat.
With a voluntary conservation easement in place, ranching families stay on their land and continue to serve as stewards of California’s iconic landscapes and rich natural resources. The Rangeland Trust ensures that the landowner adheres to the terms of the conservation easement through ongoing monitoring that includes annual onsite inspections focused on mutual goals—conserving the land and a way of life on which it depends.
Notable ranches in the Trust's portfolio include:
Yolo Land & Cattle Co. placed 6,983-acre (28.26 km2) into a conservation easement on March 25, 2005. This cattle ranch, located in the inner-coastal rangeland of the Blue Ridge Berryessa Natural Area, contains ponds, wetlands, streams and open spaces that provide habitat for many types of plants and wildlife.
Ecker Ranch, a 1,080-acre (4.4 km2) ranch is now protected by an agricultural easement.
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