Welcome to The California Rangeland Trust


	Understanding Easements Easement Basics Easement Funding Downloadable Forms Easement Transaction Process Conservation Portfolio Maps Monitoring Conservation Tax Incentives Rangeland Conservation Values

Bar One Ranch
Bear Valley
Centennial/Dressler Ranch
Cook Ranch
Cunningham Ranch
DS Ranch
East Sheridan Ranch
El Chorro Ranch
Genasci Ranch
Hafenfeld Ranch
Hearst Ranch
JK Ranch
Kester Ranch
Koopmann Ranch
Nelson Ranch
Orvis Ranch
Rancho San Lorenzo
San Lucas Ranch
Santa Margarita Ranch
Tejon Ranch
Touch the Earth Ranch
Van Alen Ranch
Varian V6 Ranch
Yolo Ranch

Rangeland Conservation Values

Thriving Wildlife and Habitat

As ranches continue to face fragmentation into ranchettes or other subdivision development, the future vitality of our wildlife and their habitat is greatly threatened. Many of the fastest growing counties in California have some of our State’s most productive rangelands. These lands host the wildlife and habitat you have become accustomed to seeing and hearing. In California, our rural areas are often the most desirable places for new development. Uncontrolled growth and urban sprawl are the biggest reasons for the permanent disappearance of this habitat each day.

Maintaining Vegetation and Oak Woodlands

When you think of the California landscape that you appreciate everyday, what pictures come to mind? Is it rolling hills studded with oak trees, meadow wetlands teaming with vegetation,or maybe it is the green grasses that rim the coastline or the wide stretches of natural areas as you drive along the roadway. Much of the oak woodlands throughout the State have been devastated by development and growth. Due to the pressure of urban sprawl as the cities edges closer to their ranches, private landowners are forced to sell their property as the basis of their business is threatened, thus are treasured landscapes are lost forever.

Threatened and Endangered Species

Ninety-five percent of our State’s threatened or endangered species live on private rangelands. Imagine if all of the rangeland was converted to development or other use? What will happen to these unique species? Will our children only experience these species in books or on television? If these and other endangered species are pushed into a situation where their only habitat is on public land, can they survive? The probability is no as they depend on the continuity of the landscape to thrive. They should not be forced to live solely within the boundaries of our public parks.

Sustaining Vernal Pool Ecosystems

Vernal pools are seasonal water depressions ranging in size from puddles to shallow lakes. They fill as the rains come or the snow melts throughout the year. These unique environments of pools are teaming with rare plants and animals that thrive in their harsh and ever changing environments.Almost 90 percent of California’s vernal pools have been lost. Many of our ranches in pending application support our remaining vernal pools.

Healthy Watersheds

Watersheds are the areas of land that capture water in a certain geographic region from rain, snow melt or other activities before it flows into a common river, lake, ocean or other body of water. The health and maintenance of these areas is imperative to keeping our water supply sustainable and clean. The quality of this supply is dependent in many ways on the health and maintenance of the environment for these watersheds. Many of these exist on privately owned ranchlands. Therefore, the continued stewardship by our landowners ensures these watersheds are managed indefinitely to provide a favorable water supply to benefit the California population at large.

Public

Everyone enjoys the benefits from the clean air and the clean water fostered by healthy rangelands in California. But we also have the privilege to take in breathtaking vistas of open landscape, to see deer or elk grazing in the meadows, to be amazed by the colorful display of our State’s fantastic array of wildflowers, to hike a trail to a ridge and suddenly gaze upon the endless stretch of land beyond or to hear the call of a hawk or eagle in the midday sky.

Our American history began with the right of landownership that has created a sense of permanence and connection to this land for each generation forward. Conservation easements on working rangelands provide the a unique tool for the stewards of those lands to continue to practice the management principles that keep their land healthy and vibrant for public appreciation. As each acre of the pending projects is critical for environmental conservation, there are nearly 400,000 reasons to support the California Rangeland Trust for the public benefit.