Press Release

June 19, 2003

Protection of Private Ranchland
Points Way to Sierra Valley's Future

Sierra Business Council founder sells, Sierra Co. assessor buys

Santa Rosa - Demonstrating the ties between natural values and economic values, the Pacific Forest Trust has partnered with a nationally recognized leader in the business of conservation, Lucy Blake, to preserve a keystone property in the wildlife-rich Sierra Valley.

Laurie Wayburn, president of the Pacific Forest Trust (PFT), said the agreement -- along with the subsequent sale of the property to the Sierra County assessor -- "illustrates the synergy that can be achieved between ecological and economic vitality with conserved, well-managed lands."

Blake, a Sierraville resident and former executive director of the California League of Conservation Voters, received a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation in 2000 for her innovative work with the Sierra Business Council, which she founded in 1994 "to secure the economic and environmental health of the Sierra Nevada."

She and PFT took a tangible step in that direction by signing a conservation easement that permanently protects 210 acres of working ranchland owned by Blake in the Sierra Valley, the largest alpine valley in the Sierra. The property, which lies along a scenic stretch of Highway 89, is a crucial building block toward creating a development-free, well-managed corridor in a region under pressure from both Reno and Lake Tahoe -- and a popular spot for second homes and ranchettes.

"My interest in this valley goes beyond my ownership of a particular piece of property," Blake said. "Working with the Pacific Forest Trust, I've been able to put my land to what I think is truly its 'highest and best use' -- contributing to the permanent protection and sustainable management of this spectacular region."

Blake has already resold the parcel to a leading local authority in the value of real estate -- Bill Copren, the Sierra County assessor. The sale is the area's first of a property on which development rights are restricted.

Copren, who described the region as "vulnerable to development," said the purchase made financial as well as environmental sense.

"We think it was a good deal for us and a good deal for our neighbors," said Copren, who bought the property with a partner, Judy Lawrence.

A conservation easement is a set of permanent limits voluntarily placed on a property to safeguard public resources, such as air and water quality, wildlife habitat and scenic beauty. These restrictions stay with the property even if it changes hands, guaranteeing permanent protection while allowing private ownership and productive use to continue.

Before selling her property -- which provides habitat for greater sandhill cranes, a threatened species, as well as several rare plants -- Blake wanted to ensure that its relatively natural habitat, open space and productive grassland values would always be protected. The easement, which prohibits residential development and commits the property to use as a working landscape of well-managed grasslands, achieves those objectives.

The protected property lies adjacent to the Valley View Angus Ranch, a 2,000-acre parcel of forest and grazing land on which PFT acquired a conservation easement in 1996 -- the first easement in the Sierra Valley. Together, the two easements are the first steps in establishing a much-needed brake on encroaching development, and offer a model of environmentally sustainable, economically productive management.

"What this shows," said Laurie Wayburn, PFT's president, "is that economic and ecological health are two sides of the same coin. It's not only possible for the region to grow and still retain a resource-based economy, it's essential.

"Everyone who's spent any time in the Sierra Valley knows it's a special place," she added. "Working with property owners like Lucy, Bill and Judy -- who know that environmental and economic interests go hand-in-hand -- we can keep it that way."