There’s a particular quality to the morning autumn light, low, gold, slanting through the oaks, sycamores, and cottonwoods
that run along the fence lines and creek banks. As the days shorten, I find myself on these brisk mornings with the
ranchers and landowners, walking property lines and talking through the season ahead. It’s in these conversations that I can feel my excitement growing for the coming pursuits.
Today, Rancho Arbolado represents the next chapter in that story. By
permanently protecting their ranch through a conservation easement with
California Rangeland Trust, the Pedotti family will preserve not only their
agricultural heritage and way of life, but also critical wildlife habitat and open
space.
In this episode Michael Delbar sits down with Nita Vail to explore her journey from growing up as a fourth-generation rancher on Santa Rosa Island to a career in state government, environmental policy, and rangeland conservation.
In the Cuyama Valley on September 12, 2026, community members, donors, landowner partners, and friends gathered with the Rangeland Trust and the Doiron family to celebrate the conservation of Spanish Ranch.
An art exhibit and sale benefiting the California Rangeland Trust, Santa Barbara
Central Library’s Faulkner Gallery October 1st through October 30th.
Six projects will support the permanent conservation of more than 100,000 acres of working ranchlands through conservation easements.
In this episode, host and CEO of the Rangeland Trust, Michael Delbar, sits down with Rangeland Trust ranching partners Mark and Dina Moore of Lone Star Ranch. They share their experience keeping the ranch intact across generations and the steps they have taken to prepare the next generation to lead while preserving the legacy of the land.
Nearly two centuries apart, two women made the same decision on the same piece of California ground—to hold on.
Because of these choices, the Spanish Ranch remains one of the last intact pieces of the 22,000-acre historic Rancho de Cuyama No. 1 and is now permanently protected through a conservation easement.
Mary Vail’s story begins in the hills of West Hollywood, where her upbringing was shaped by both education and ranching traditions. Her mother, Christine, was a schoolteacher, and her father, Granville, worked for Vail & Vickers Cattle Company—what Mary simply remembers as “the family company.” She can still picture walking into his office as a young girl and seeing the mounted animals decorating the room.
In this episode, we sit down with Tucker Brown, a rancher from Throckmorton, Texas, who has built a following of more than 211,000 people on Instagram by documenting the day-to-day realities of his family’s multi-generational ranch.
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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