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Protecting Open Land

Comstock’s Magazine
Jennifer Junghans
November 12, 2020

California Rangeland Trust project places fiscal value on the environmental benefits of ranches

Stan Van Vleck, owner of the 13,000-acre Van Vleck Ranch in Rancho Murieta, is incrementally placing 30 percent of his ranch under conservation easements, with nearly 1,800 acres conserved to date.

“We’re going to be one of the largest private dedications of land in our region,” says Van Vleck, whose cattle ranch accounts for 5 percent of all agricultural land in Sacramento County.

Positioned between Deer Creek Hills Preserve and Gill Ranch — both working ranches with land under conservation easements — Van Vleck’s conserved land creates a vast corridor of preserved habitat among the three properties.

Read the full piece in Comstock’s Magazine.