Large Central Valley ranch to be permanently conserved

FARMINGTON
February 28, 2008 11:49am

A 2,235-acre ranch 13 miles east of rapidly expanding Stockton in the Central Valley will remain a ranch in perpetuity under terms of a conservation easement the ranch’s owners have sold.

The Trust for Public Land, the California Department of Conservation, California Rangeland Trust and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service have struck up the deal with the W.F. Cook Cattle Co. ranch near Farmington.

The state is paying Cook Cattle Co. $1.7 million and the federal government an additional $1.3 million for the conservation easement. The easement value was appraised at $3.5 million; the Cook family is donating the difference, says Don Drysdale, a spokesman for the Department of Conservation.

The state’s money is from Proposition 40 approved by California voters in 2002.

Similar properties near the Cook Ranch are being subdivided and sold as 40-acre ranchettes. The conservation easement means while the land can be sold, it can only be used for farming and ranching.

Bill Cook says he watched the subdivision of nearby land for housing and approached the Trust for Public Land for help.

"I wanted to stop development at our boundary line," he says in a written statement.

The easement allows a single family residence to be built in the future along with a ranch headquarters for working cattle.

"The Central Valley is the heart of our state, and family farms and ranches are the heart of the Valley," says Reed Holderman, executive director of TPL-California. "The region is known for its orchards, fields, and grasslands, but they're a threatened resource. Today, we've preserved a piece of that rural character while also supporting local industry."

The easement will be managed by California Rangeland Trust.

The W.F. Cook Cattle Company ranch is eight miles west of Orvis Ranch, which was protected in 2006 through Calaveras County's first agricultural conservation easement. The 2,500-acre property has been in the Orvis family for 130 years, and the easement ensures it will never be subdivided or developed.