Ross Ranch
Funded by the Department of Conservation’s Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation (SALC) Program, help from generous donors, and matching funds from the McConnell Foundation, owner of the property, this 860-acre ranch will forever be protected from the threat of residential development and results in a multitude of wide-reaching benefits for the environment, local economy, and community. The SALC program is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment — particularly in disadvantaged communities.
Ross Ranch presents a mixed landscape of blue oak woodlands, annual grasslands, wetlands, and riparian corridors. Located just north of Shasta College and south of Bear Mountain, red-tailed hawks soar above the landscape and deer, coyotes, jackrabbits, and quail, among other species, live and thrive there. An important piece of the Stillwater Creek Watershed and serving as a green belt separating our urban areas, this ranch is important to protect because of its biodiversity and agricultural use, now and into the future.
The ranch has been perfect for multiple opportunities, making it a perfect project for conservation with a big impact. The ranch supports 100 head of Prather Ranch cattle during the winter and spring months and a third generation bee keeper also utilizes the property for the production of locally sold honey. Grants such as the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Healthy Soils Program allowed the ranch to be utilized as a carbon sequestration demonstration site. With close proximity to Shasta College, an educational opportunity emerged for local college students to learn how adapting agricultural practices can increase productivity of a working ranch. A Carbon Farm Plan in partnership with Point Blue Conservation Science was created with the goal to increase soil carbon and soil water-holding capacity, increase rangeland vegetation functional groups and decrease non-native invasive species, increase wildlife habitat, and extend the length of the grazing season. In addition, public trails with interpretive signage will be strategically placed throughout the northern portion of the property in the coming years.
Protection of Ross Ranch will ensure the conservation of many sensitive natural communities which support several special status species including vernal pool shrimp, Shasta salamander, valley elderberry longhorn beetle, and foothill yellow-legged frog. The ranch provides nesting and foraging habitat for over 65 species of birds, including a long-term pair of nesting State endangered Bald Eagles and two California species of special concern: the Grasshopper Sparrow and the Yellow Warbler. Approximately 2.25 miles of East and West Stillwater Creeks provides salmon spawning habitat and juvenile Chinook rearing habitat during good rainfall years. Regenerative agricultural practices being utilized help to improve soil health and ensure the ranch is serving as a rainfall catchment for the watershed; increasing natural water storage and prolonging surface water flow in the creek.
Shasta Land Trust thanks the Department of Conservation, California Climate Investments, the McConnell Foundation, and all our generous donors who supported this project from start to finish.
