Homes on the range?

There was a time when beat-up Ford and Chevrolet trucks were a common sight rambling down the dusty lane past the Gallino Ranch in Penn Valley.

These days, pickups have been replaced by BMWs and Lexus sedans as more and more agricultural land is sold as prime real estate for high-dollar homes.

"The values are different," said Barbara Gallino, who has been raising grass-fed beef cattle with her husband, David, on their large ranch since 1977.

They have watched as large pastures in the county get subdivided into small parcels. Not a day goes by that the Gallinos don't get a call from real estate agents making offers that are hard to refuse.

"There's just a shrinking land base," David Gallino said.

Range lands are disappearing across the state as ranchers age and California's appetite for rural land grows.

"We have to do what we can to support them and keep them surviving," District 4 Supervisor Hank Weston said during a recent visit to the Gallino Ranch.

The Nevada County Board of Supervisors recently joined more than 50 environmental, state and federal agencies and conservation and agriculture groups to sign the California Rangeland Resolution - a growing movement to preserve range land from suburban development.

The resolution recognizes privately owned range land as some of the last open spaces that provide refuge for many plant and animal species.



Unlikely partners

Yet the resolution is a symbolic gesture and does nothing to enact specific protections.

In Nevada County, board members have vowed to protect the rights of property owners to develop their land. They have approved housing developments - such as The Wolf and DarkHorse - on former ranch land.

Conservation groups nevertheless have praised the resolution, which is bringing together groups with historically opposing viewpoints that now share common concerns about development devouring agricultural land.

The Environmental Defense and the Nature Conservancy have signed up along with the California Cattlemen's Association and the California Grazing Lands Coalition.

"Instead of standing on both sides of the street throwing rocks at each other, we're coming together," David Gallino said.

"I really like to see things like that. It shows there are things different groups can agree on and work to support," Nevada County Land Trust President John Taylor said. The trust works to keep large tracts of agricultural land from becoming housing tracts.

Disappearing

range land

Tens of thousands of range-land acres have been converted to other uses since the 1990s. The decline caused by residential and commercial development is projected to continue into the year 2040, according to a 2003 report by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

"It's not something that is expected to slow down," said Tracy Schohr, director of Rangeland Conservation for the California Cattlemen's Association.

Supervisor Weston grew up on a farm and represents many ranchers in his district, which covers Penn Valley and Rough and Ready. With 45 years on state fire crews, he also witnessed how grazed ranch lands act as fire breaks during wildfires.

There are 25 to 30 ranches remaining in Nevada County. Almost half of those ranching families have been on the land for 100 to 150 years, said Lesa Osterholm, manager of the Nevada County Resource Conservation District.

"We're really at a critical point. We want to help them stay in business," Osterholm said.



Three generations

Ranching has been in the Gallino blood for three generations. David Gallino's Italian-born grandfather Antonio bought the Geach Ranch in the 1920s to raise dairy cows on land where the 49er Fun Park and Hill's Flat Lumber now sit. David Gallino's father continued to raise beef cattle on the ranch after the dairy closed in the 1960s.

With a shrinking land base, the Gallinos use a rotational grazing system. Besides the Gallino home ranch, animals spend winters on leased land near Redding in Shasta County and spend summers on Forest Service land outside Alleghany.

"We don't have room to grow. That's why we have to go to Redding," Barbara Gallino said.

Future of the ranch

Ranching isn't an easy life, and the Gallinos work day jobs as a hairdresser and building contractor to support the ranch.

They have no children, thus no offspring to inherit their land. The couple is considering options such as an agriculture easement through the Nevada County Land Trust. It's a future decision they lose sleep over.

David Gallino walks comfortably along the muddy trail on his 160 acres. He looks every bit the cowboy in Wrangler jeans, cowboy hat and boots. He sees the resolution and a growing local food movement as promising "tools in the tool box" to keep his ranch land in production for years to come.

"There is a lot of personal issues we are struggling with right now. Our thoughts change daily," said Gallino, with arms across his chest. Behind him, spring breezes push the clouds swiftly across the sky and move the grasses like waves.

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To contact Staff Writer Laura Brown, e-mail laurab@theunion.com or call 477-4231.