A local land trust is finalizing a $1.5 million deal that will result in the preservation of 652 acres of South County ranchland along the Bear River that would have been underwater had plans for a dam been consummated. The Bear-Yuba Land Trust used funds provided by the Wildlife Conservation Board to purchase Garden Bar Preserve, which is located at the end of Perimeter Road and contains about 2 miles of frontage along the Bear River and includes the tributary Little Wolf Creek. “It’s really beautiful,” said Marty Coleman-Hunt, executive director of the Land Trust. “It provides habitat for an …