Profiles in Preservation

beefcows

Thomas Ielmorini Ranch, Chileno Valley

Tom Ielmorini's heart is in the Chileno Valley where, for 90 years, his family has ranched the picturesque homestead first owned by his grandparents. The Ielmorini Ranch is located six miles from Petaluma in a productive agricultural area seriously threathened by urban sprawl. A portion of Laguna Lake, which forms the headwaters of Chileno Creek, is located on the property. The ranch supports significant natural resources, including migrating waterfowl, native perennial grasses, and oak and bay forests. Thanks to the purchase of MALT's 40th agricultural conservation easement, it now is protected permanently from subdivision and non-farm development.

Tom grew up on the 701-acrea ranch and remembers waking at 1:30 every monring to catch the cows for milking, then doing it all over again every afternoon. In the old days, his mother Helen cooked breakfast, dinner (as they called lunch), and supper for her family of five and for the six working men who lived in the bunkhouse. He still has the long kitchen table where all 11 of them used to gather in the ranch house kitchen for meals.

Helen canned home-grown fruits and vegetables, made cheese, soap, even wine, while her husband worked with the animals. Tom's father (also named Thomas) ran the dairy until 1974 when he switched to a beef operation. "My parents both worked really hard," he remembers. After her husband's death in 1981, Helen kept some cows of her own, but rented most of the grazing land out to other cattlemen who raised replacement heifers. She lived on the ranch until her death in 1993.

Tom had moved from the ranch to Petaluma in 1965 when he married his wife Claudia. "I never wanted to leave," he said, "but there was no place for us to live here." Over the years, he went back and forth from Petaluma to help out and also worked as a teamster until his retirement in 1998. He and Claudia have three grown children.

After both their parents passed away, Tom dreamed of holding onto the place and continuing the beef cattle operation, but his two sisters wanted to sell. He approached MALT, then used the $590,000 easement sale to help purchase his sisters' shares in the property. "There's no way I could have done it without MALT's help."

Funds for the easement transaction came in part from the last of the 1988 California Wildlife, Coastal, and Park Land Conservation Bond Act (Proposition 70) for perservation of farmland in Marin. The remainder of the funds used for the purchase were contributed to MALT for its agricultural conservation easement program.

Tom's heart has always been in the Chileno Valley, and he's very happy to be able to still be able to call it home.

To see a timeline of MALT easements, download MALT's Land Preservation Report.