An excellent, and ancient, model for working together, finding common ground.
Guardians of the range
A conservation group that aims to protect 13 million acres is doing the unthinkable: getting ranchers and environmentalists to work together
By Matt Weiser - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, May 8, 2007
On a golden morning in the hills of western Yolo County, Scott and Casey Stone sort cattle for shipment to summer pasture.
The brothers, on horseback, silently weave through the noisy herd. With practiced eyes, they match cows with their calves before the truck arrives.
All around them is their 7,500-acre family ranch, a picture-perfect slice of a California landscape that is increasingly at risk.
Open space like this -- rolling hills, ancient oak trees, flower-filled meadows -- defines the state's scenery and supports a huge share of its wildlife. It is also the rallying cry for an unlikely coalition bent on keeping rangeland away from developers eager to satisfy demand for housing.
"There's been a lot of really nice ranches in California that over the years have been purchased and subdivided," said Scott Stone, 50. "We don't want to do that.
We're trying to do ecologically friendly, sustainable ranching that benefits both us and the watershed and wildlife."
That's why the Stone brothers and their father, Hank, in 2005 preserved rangeland by selling development rights on their ranch. It's why they support the California Rangeland Conservation Coalition, which aims to protect about 13 million acres of oak woodland and grazing land between Redding and Bakersfield.
