There isn’t a more iconic cornerstone in the global Arabian horse industry than Varian Arabians. Its walls saw history made on several occasions: when Ronteza beat the Quarter Horses to win the Open Reined Cow Championships; when the three Polish mares stepped off the trailer onto Varian soil and started a revolution in the importation […]
News
If you are a member of the media looking to contact the Rangeland Trust, please email our Communications Director, Jessica Kong, at jkong@rangelandtrust.org. Or call our office at 916-444-2096.
The Gift of Chance
For the last decade or so, we’d call each other at least once a week. I’d get a call from Jim, “Where are you? What are you doing?” he’d cheerfully holler into the phone. I’d tell him and ask the same of him and his response was almost always, “Just came in to change horses.” […]
My Experience on Farm Tank’s Protein Panel
On September 22 I found myself sitting onstage at a food conference in Sacramento with six others on a “Sustainable Protein Panel.” Early into our dialogue, anti-meat protestors jumped onto the stage holding signs reading, “It’s not food, it’s violence.” and began shouting. Like me, you must wonder how I got myself into this situation. […]
The Last Two Years, Two Months, and 18 Days
“I took that [photo] two years ago.” It was 6 in the evening. In the light breeze, the faint smell of moist soil on a warm summer evening wafted off the vernal pool area Jack Alderson, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Engineer, had come to photograph. The sun had dropped behind the hills and the […]
Where Your Food Grows and Grazes
All California Rangeland Trust wanted to do was show elected officials the relevance of ranching in the effort to get youth outdoors when they began bussing local urban youth to nearby ranches last summer. “We weren’t prepared for the outpouring of support within the community or the effectiveness of this program,” said Rangeland Trust’s CEO […]
A Western Affair 2016
The hills were alive on April 30, 2016. Silver lace of grass just turning to seed, rippled across the plush green and gold carpet covering the hills as far as the eye could see as gusts up to 40 miles per hour threatened to blow tents, tables, and décor into Butte County. Thanks to an […]
Looking Back to Look Forward
Looking back 18 years to the day California Rangeland Trust was born, it seems not much has changed. Ranchers faced economic challenges that made it difficult to make a living grazing livestock. The confiscatory “death tax” befell too many families. Regulations increased. And so, unbridled development converted the great grazing lands of California to housing […]
The Permanency of the Conservation Tax Incentive
“Had I known it would take 16 years I probably wouldn’t have done it,” said Rock Ringling of Montana Land Reliance and President ofthe Partnership of Rangeland Trusts (PORT). But conservation-minded ranchers across the country are glad he did. It’s what Land Trust Alliance President Rand Wentworth called “[…] the single greatest legislative action in […]
A Student’s Perspective of a Day at the O’Connell Ranch
On October 8th, 2015, the Farm to Fork and Culinary program at River City High School went on a field trip to the O’Connell Ranch in Colusa, California. On the field trip we got to experience many different ways of farming, different types of fruit, animals, and nutrition. I met a lot of new and […]
Seeking Land Trust Alliance Accreditation Renewal
The Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance, recognizes land conservation organizations like the California Rangeland Trust that meet national quality standards for protecting important natural places and working lands forever. Accreditation involves and extensive review of each applicant’s policies and programs to ensure the highest standards of land conservation […]
