More often than not, conversations about land focus on what it provides: clean air, fresh water, local food, wildlife habitat, and more. These benefits are visible, measurable, and essential to the health and resilience of communities—a large part of why land conservation exists. Yet when ranchers are asked why they protect their land, their answers often go beyond environmental benefits.
They speak of tradition and values, of a way of life shaped by hard work, horsemanship, family responsibility, and a deep connection to place. For many ranching families, these traditions are not simply cultural artifacts. They are the foundation of the stewardship that keeps working rangelands productive and intact.
By the late 1800s, as cattle operations spread across open rangelands throughout the American West, daily routines like riding fences and caring for livestock forged a culture defined by resilience, cooperation, and respect for the land. Over time, these practices became a living heritage, passed from one generation to the next and grounded in practical knowledge and a long view of stewardship. That cultural inheritance does more than preserve tradition. It sustains the people and practices that have shaped California’s rangelands for generations and continue caring for them today.
For the Richards family of Dry Creek Ranch in Merced County, ranching is both connection and commitment. It is a daily link to past generations and a promise to those who will follow. Multiple generations have worked side by side, gathering cattle on horseback, repairing fences, and passing down lessons learned in the saddle.
Dana Richards, the family matriarch, has been part of the ranching industry for as long as she can remember. Her grandfather was involved in the local cattle business, a connection that ultimately led her parents to purchase what is now Dry Creek Ranch in 1975. After their passing, Dana and her husband Roy assumed responsibility for the operation, continuing the family legacy.
“My grandfather was a cattleman and had a connection to this area,” Dana said. “My parents and I lived out in Hopeton on a small ranch until this property became available, and they were able to purchase it.”
Today, Dana and Roy have stepped back from day-to-day management, allowing their son Roy W., his wife Breanne, and their three children to take the reins. The family now lives on the ranch, carrying forward its heritage while raising their children in the traditions and realities of ranching.
“It is almost rare nowadays for a ranch to remain in the same family for more than three generations,” Breanne reflected. “It is hard work, but there is no other way we would want to be raising our kids.”
The Richards family has watched rangeland in Merced County, and across California, steadily give way to subdivisions and intensified agriculture. Witnessing that shift strengthened their resolve to protect the land they call home. Like many ranching families, they understand that once working rangeland is converted to development, it rarely returns. Safeguarding the ranch meant ensuring the landscape could remain productive and intact for future generations.
Dana Richards often reflects on that reality when she considers the future of California’s open spaces.
“God is not in the business of making more land,” Dana said. “This land is what you think about when you think of the old West, and it is important that we protect it for preservation of the Western culture. Once we lose it, it won’t come back.”
In 2002, the Richards family saw firsthand what protecting that landscape could look like when the Cunningham family of Merced County conserved the Cunningham Ranch in partnership with the California Rangeland Trust. After conducting their own research and discussions, the Richards family followed a similar path. In 2014, they partnered with the Rangeland Trust to place a 4,400-acre conservation easement on Dry Creek Ranch. Earlier this year, they also completed conservation on the remaining 1,300 acres of the ranch. This effort was made possible through funding from the Bureau of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project Conservation Program and the California Department of Conservation through the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation (SALC) Program.*
Beyond Dry Creek Ranch, the family has expanded the operation by acquiring two additional properties already protected by Rangeland Trust easements: Cunningham Ranch and Nelson Ranch. Collectively, the family now owns and stewards more than 11,600 acres of perpetually conserved rangeland.
The family expressed deep gratitude to the California Rangeland Trust and its partners for helping make the conservation of Dry Creek Ranch possible, noting the important role these partnerships play in protecting working lands throughout the region. For Dana, protecting these properties is about more than preserving open space. It is about ensuring the traditions tied to that land continue for generations to come.
“California is known as a produce state, but not all land can be farmed, and these rangelands are essential to the state’s history and productivity,” she said. “We still rope and ride horseback, and my brother still does an old-fashioned cattle drive so we can maintain a connection to past generations and pass those skills on to our grandchildren.”
Today, Roy W. and Breanne’s children are slowly finding their place on the ranch, learning the work and values that will one day guide them. The family plans to continue expanding operations when feasible and conserve more acres, knowing it is the right thing to do.
Breanne shared, “On a personal level, I appreciate knowing this land will always be this way for future generations. These easements are just the right thing, not just for our family but for the land itself. Once it’s developed, it doesn’t come back.”
In the end, conserving Dry Creek Ranch was about more than acres on a map. It was about ensuring future generations have the opportunity to saddle a horse, gather cattle, and learn the quiet responsibility that comes with caring for land and livestock. Protecting a ranch and the history behind it allows those traditions to be experienced firsthand, carrying forward the lessons, work ethic, and stewardship that will shape these landscapes long into the future.
Through their partnership with the California Rangeland Trust, the Richards family has secured not only the future of their land but also the continuation of a way of life rooted in responsibility to the land itself—a commitment that will remain written across the hills of Merced County for generations to come.
*SALC is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that uses Cap-and-Trade funds to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, strengthen the economy, and improve public health and the environment—particularly in disadvantaged communities.
California Rangeland Trust is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charitable organization (tax identification number 31-1631453) under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.
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