How to Read a Ranch: What One Photograph Tells Us
February 19, 2026
This is a familiar sight while driving through West Marin: rolling hills catching golden light, cattle grazing open grassland, water glinting in the distance. It looks timeless—the kind of landscape that feels like it has always been here and always will be.
But landscapes like this don’t preserve themselves.
Photographer Jeff Lewis captured this panorama of Spring Valley Ranch—1,179 acres south of the Soulajule Reservoir that MALT protected in 2024. It’s a remote corner of Marin that most people never set foot on, part of a 13,895-acre contiguous block of protected agricultural land, one of the largest in the North Bay. The ranching families who work it have been here for generations. The easement we secured means the next generation can be here too.
Most people stop at what they can see from the road. But there’s so much more here. Let’s look closer. Because in this case, a picture really is worth a thousand words.
A Working Landscape
Those cattle are producing food for Bay Area families—and keeping this landscape open for the next generation of ranchers.
Ranching does more than put food on tables. It keeps farmland in production, supports rural families, and maintains the open land that defines Marin. Without working ranches, we lose all of it.
See that darker vegetation on the right? That’s what happens when ranching stops. Coyote brush moves in, then bay laurel and Douglas fir. Over time the grassland becomes forest and you begin to lose one of North America’s most biodiverse habitats—and the ranch’s ability to produce food.
This isn’t accidental. For thousands of years, large animals shaped this coastal prairie. The grass needs grazing—the disturbance, the hoof impact. When cattle graze at the right intensity and move on, the system thrives.
The families ranching here aren’t separate from nature—they’re part of the ecosystem. The conservation easement we secured protects their ability to keep ranching and keep this working landscape intact for the farmers who come next.
Protecting Our Water
That water in the distance is the Soulajule Reservoir. It supplies drinking water to much of Marin County. What keeps our water clean starts up here.
Protecting farms and ranches from development—and ensuring ranchers can manage grazing well, moving cattle strategically, letting grass grow deep roots—means the soil absorbs winter rains instead of shedding them as runoff. Less sediment washes downstream. Creek flows stay steadier through summer.
Rain falling on this ranch might end up in your tap. Thousands more acres of protected ranchland throughout the watershed do the same work—keeping your drinking water clean.
Preserving Habitat
Look at the patchwork here—open grassland, scattered shrubs, denser stands of Douglas fir. This habitat mosaic is what makes rangelands critical for biodiversity and resilience.
Ground-nesting birds require short grass. Native pollinators work the edges where shrubs meet meadow. Deer and smaller mammals move through wooded corridors for shelter and forage. Rangelands with a diverse vegetation structure support more wildlife than uniform landscapes.
When ranches stay intact and productive—managed for grazing and long-term viability—this complexity persists. The science is clear that protecting intact rangelands like this is the highest conservation priority. Once you fragment or degrade these landscapes, rebuilding that complexity takes decades—if it’s possible at all.
Investing in Our Rangelands
See the water trough? This is what makes our region’s healthy rangelands possible.
Overgrazing—keeping too many livestock in one place for too long—damages soil and drastically reduces the land’s ability to absorb water. To avoid it, ranchers move their animals frequently across large paddocks in what’s commonly called rotational grazing. That requires water access everywhere the herd goes. Water troughs and fencing allow the land to be grazed more gently.
MALT’s stewardship grants help ranchers add water troughs, tanks, pipes, and pumps. And it doesn’t stop there. Fencing to create additional paddocks. Compost applications. Rangeland seeding. These are investments in private lands that deliver regional benefits—clean water, wildlife habitat, climate resilience. Through our grant programs and partnerships, we help ranchers afford the infrastructure that makes good management possible for everyone.
MALT has invested more than $4 million in land stewardship grants across Marin—water systems, fencing, erosion control, habitat restoration. It’s an investment in the rangelands that sustain our region.
Wildlife Corridors
Pull back. Those ridges in the distance—Hicks Mountain, Mt. Burdell—are miles apart. But working ranches connect them.
Spring Valley Ranch is part of a 13,895-acre contiguous block of protected agricultural land, one of the largest in the North Bay. This block is part of an even larger network—nearly 59,000 acres of MALT-protected farmland across Marin County that we’re still building.
Migratory birds follow watersheds. Deer move between seasonal ranges. Different species need different things—some roam widely, others migrate seasonally—but all need connected habitat to survive and thrive.
California’s 30×30 initiative aims to conserve 30% of the state’s lands and coastal waters by 2030—not as isolated parks, but as connected networks that support biodiversity across regions. Working landscapes like protected ranches are essential to reaching that goal. These lands don’t stand alone. Each one strengthens the landscape around it, creating corridors and connections that keep wildlife moving and ecosystems functioning.
At MALT, we’re in the business of forever. When we protect a ranch, the easement lasts in perpetuity—the land stays agricultural for the next generation and all the ones after that.
But one dairy farmer said it plainly: “We’ve got the land protected now, but my kids can’t afford to take over the operation.”
Forever only works if ranching stays viable. That means infrastructure—the water systems and fencing you’ve seen here. Capital to help operations adapt. Partnerships addressing land access for the next generation.
Land protection and stewardship go hand in hand. The Spring Valley easement was funded by private donations and a grant from Marin County’s Measure A Farmland Preservation Program, the voter-approved investment in farmland preservation. When we protect land and invest in the ranchers who manage it, we get everything you see in this photograph: food production, clean water, wildlife habitat, and families who can afford to keep ranching.
Forever is only as strong as the people who make it work. A gift to MALT invests in both — the land, and the people who steward it.
Photos by Jeff Lewis.