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A 12,500-acre ranch in Southern
Monterey County
amassed by California inventor Stanton (Stan) Avery, San
Miguel, has been donated to the California Rangeland Trust
(Rangeland Trust), a nonprofit, rancher-governed group
dedicated to protecting California’s open spaces and
ranching heritage.
Deer Valley Ranch (entrance gate
pictured below) is a critical part of a wildlife corridor
that connects conservation lands from the Salinas Valley
to the San Joaquin. For the past century, it has been a
cattle ranching operation and most recently a cowcalf and
stocker ranch, with some barley farming in the interior
valleys.
As a well-managed ranch in the heart of
Monterey’s oak savannah landscape, it supports habitat for
wildlife, such as Tule elk, blacktail deer, bobcat,
mountain lion, San Joaquin kit fox, migratory songbirds,
California quail, a wide variety of hawks and golden
eagles.
“We are enormously grateful
for the generosity and foresight that allows us to protect
this extraordinary California landscape,” said Nita Vail,
chief executive officer for the Rangeland Trust. “Our
intention is to use this tremendous gift as a springboard
to leverage additional funding and protect many, many more
ranches throughout California.”
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The ranch is the largest gift received by the Trust in the
organization’s 12-year history.
“This significant and appreciated donation by the Avery
family will create two capacity-increasing opportunities,”
said Steve McDonald, chairman of the Califoria Rangeland
Trust. “First and foremost, our organization’s
sustainability will be protected by setting up an
endowment for our operations. Secondly, and on
most board member’s minds, is establishing an endowment to
address the pending project list of cattlemen and women, who have committed their property to conservation.”
A
well-known inventor and businessman, Avery worked in Los
Angeles in the depths of the Great Depression in 1935. He
came from a long line of farmers in New England and liked
tinkering with machinery. After hours, he put together a
machine to make commercially viable self-adhesive labels,
using spare parts from a washing machine, sewing machine
and a saber saw.
He and his future wife, Dorothy
Durfee, used her savings from teaching to start the small
label company that became the Avery Dennison Corporation –
a maker of labels for consumer and office use and a major
supplier of the U.S. Postal Service’s self-adhesive
stamps.
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Avery was part of a distinguished group of
Californians, including David Packard, who
shaped conservation in California through high-level
involvement with a number of initiatives.
Deer Valley Ranch became a
gathering place for leaders of the day during the 1970s
and 1980s. The Rangeland Trust will place a conservation easement on the property so that it will
remain a ranch, and is seeking a buyer, who will continue
the vision of Stan Avery, managing the land as both a
working cattle ranch and an extraordinary natural area.
“Our goal is to continue the outstanding stewardship of
this land by maintaining this ranch in private ownership,
and assuring that it will be forever managed as a
productive, sustainable landscape,” said founding
Rangeland Trust Board Member Steve Sinton, Shandon. “This
is a wonderful opportunity for our organization, and we
are extremely appreciative of the confidence placed in the
Rangeland Trust to continue a ranching legacy that
provides for the environment, ranching families, and rural
communities.”
This outstanding ranch is listed with
Pete Clark of Clark Company, Paso Robles. For photos and
additional details on the property, visit
www.clarkcompany.com. |
