Ranch sale will allow park near Morgan Hill
Source: MercuryNews.com, by Paul Rogers
November 30, 2007
868 ACRES TO BE PRESERVED ON SAN JOSE SOUTHERN EDGE
An 868-acre cattle ranch in the hills on San Jose's southern edges will become a new public park under a deal between a Palo Alto land preservation group and a longtime Santa Clara County farming and ranching family.
The Peninsula Open Space Trust has signed an agreement to pay $8.68 million to the Blair family to purchase Blair Ranch, a rolling expanse of grasslands, oak trees and rocky outcroppings along Uvas Road near Calero Reservoir.
The deal blocks future construction in a part of Santa Clara County where ranchettes and large homes have spread in recent years.
It also brings open space groups closer to a long-held dream of building a trail that would connect up to 10 parks from Lexington Reservoir near Los Gatos to the Coyote Valley area in south San Jose - a distance of about 15 miles.
"Looking forward, more linkages are going to occur. The stars are going to align," said Audrey Rust, president of the Peninsula Open Space Trust.
The ranch has been in the same family since 1951, when farmer Ralph Johnson bought it with proceeds from selling part of his family's pear and sugar beet farm in Santa Clara, located on the present-day site of the Great America theme park.
"We really enjoyed the ranching life," said Richard Blair, Johnson's grandson. "Growing up in that environment, in an area where you could ride horses and hunt all in your back yard, it was a fabulous place."
Johnson died in 1959. His wife, Ora Miller, whose grandfather had come to the West in 1856 in covered wagons, died in 1994.
For half a century, however, the family has run Angus and other types of beef cattle on the property. It is rich in wildlife, with black-tail deer, mountain lions, bobcats and a healthy mix of birds, including great herons, golden eagles and barn owls.
Blair said his family offered the land for sale several years ago. His parents, Martell and Marian Blair, will continue to live on 122 adjacent acres the family will retain.
Like many ranchers in the Bay Area, they have eased out of the cattle business as land prices and labor costs increased, and urbanization has made cattle buyers and veterinarians fewer and farther between.
"We were looking for a buyer. We were looking for somebody who would enjoy the ranch like we enjoyed it. We preferred it not be developed," Blair said.
The property has six miles of dirt roads suitable for hiking, mountain biking and horse riding.
On a recent day atop its ridges, the view extended east to Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton and west to the top of Mount Umunhum, with oak-studded hills rolling off into the distance south to Gilroy.
"Isn't this just fabulous?" said Rust, whose grandfather had come to the West in 1856 in covered wagons, died in 1994.
For half a century, however, the family has run Angus and other types of beef cattle on the property. It is rich in wildlife, with black-tail deer, mountain lions, bobcats and a healthy mix of birds, including great herons, golden eagles and barn owls.
Blair said his family offered the land for sale several years ago. His parents, Martell and Marian Blair, will continue to live on 122 adjacent acres the family will retain.
Like many ranchers in the Bay Area, they have eased out of the cattle business as land prices and labor costs increased, and urbanization has made cattle buyers and veterinarians fewer and farther between.
"We were looking for a buyer. We were looking for somebody who would enjoy the ranch like we enjoyed it. We preferred it not be developed," Blair said.
The property has six miles of dirt roads suitable for hiking, mountain biking and horse riding.
On a recent day atop its ridges, the view extended east to Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton and west to the top of Mount Umunhum, with oak-studded hills rolling off into the distance south to Gilroy.
"Isn't this just fabulous?" said Rust, whose grandfather had come to the West in 1856 in covered wagons, died in 1994.
For half a century, however, the family has run Angus and other types of beef cattle on the property. It is rich in wildlife, with black-tail deer, mountain lions, bobcats and a healthy mix of birds, including great herons, golden eagles and barn owls.
Blair said his family offered the land for sale several years ago. His parents, Martell and Marian Blair, will continue to live on 122 adjacent acres the family will retain.
Like many ranchers in the Bay Area, they have eased out of the cattle business as land prices and labor costs increased, and urbanization has made cattle buyers and veterinarians fewer and farther between.
"We were looking for a buyer. We were looking for somebody who would enjoy the ranch like we enjoyed it. We preferred it not be developed," Blair said.
The property has six miles of dirt roads suitable for hiking, mountain biking and horse riding.
On a recent day atop its ridges, the view extended east to Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton and west to the top of Mount Umunhum, with oak-studded hills rolling off into the distance south to Gilroy.
"Isn't this just fabulous?" said Rust, whose grandfather had come to the West in 1856 in covered wagons, died in 1994.
For half a century, however, the family has run Angus and other types of beef cattle on the property. It is rich in wildlife, with black-tail deer, mountain lions, bobcats and a healthy mix of birds, including great herons, golden eagles and barn owls.
Blair said his family offered the land for sale several years ago. His parents, Martell and Marian Blair, will continue to live on 122 adjacent acres the family will retain.
Like many ranchers in the Bay Area, they have eased out of the cattle business as land prices and labor costs increased, and urbanization has made cattle buyers and veterinarians fewer and farther between.
"We were looking for a buyer. We were looking for somebody who would enjoy the ranch like we enjoyed it. We preferred it not be developed," Blair said.
The property has six miles of dirt roads suitable for hiking, mountain biking and horse riding.
On a recent day atop its ridges, the view extended east to Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton and west to the top of Mount Umunhum, with oak-studded hills rolling off into the distance south to Gilroy.
"Isn't this just fabulous?" said Rust, stepping out of a four-wheel drive vehicle with a herd of cattle and gnarled oaks nearby. "You really can't believe you are so close to Silicon Valley and all that traffic."
Since 1977, Rust's organization has helped protect 60,000 acres in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties - an area nearly double the size of San Francisco.
Rust said the deal will close in March. After that, her group, which has a $2 million donation from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to help fund the deal, will transfer the land to the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority.
Since 1999, the authority, funded by property taxes, has preserved more than 13,000 acres, much of it in the east foothills and near Calero Reservoir. The Blair ranch sits adjacent to Rancho Cañada de Oro, a 3,017-acre preserve run by the authority and open for hiking, biking and horse riding.
Patrick Congdon, the authority's general manager, predicted it will take 10 years to assemble enough public land and trail easements to extend a trail from Lexington Reservoir to the Anderson Reservoir or Coyote Valley area.
Corridors of open land are vital for wildlife, he said.
"We don't want to create islands," he said. "Essentially you are restricting movement of animals, forcing them to live in one small area where invasive plants and recreational activities reduce the population to where its ability to successfully reproduce is diminished. Then all it takes is one thing - like fire, earthquake, flood or disease - where they drop to almost nothing."
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