From Tim Koopmann’s ranch in Alameda County, he has watched the city grow. A shadow encroaching on the green hills, urban expansion has scratched at his horizon as long as he can remember. His small stretch of land is 50 miles from San Francisco, between Livermore and Fremont, right smack in the middle of one of the state’s most rapidly-developing regions. He’s been fighting for these open spaces all his life, battling pressure from developers, declining cattle prices, drought, enormous tax penalties triggered by the deaths of his father and grandfather, and negative public opinions against grazing.