A conservation easement will keep the Webber Ranch in private ownership while stripping it of development rights. A state grant of $330,000 is paying for the easement from owner Pete Craig, according to the state Department of Conservation.

“He gave up a lot of value,” Land Trust CEO Doug Parker said. “He sold (the easement) for below the appraised value, quite a bit below.”

Webber Ranch has grasslands, oak woodlands and mixed manzanita chaparral. It extends from a federal strip of land along U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Lake Berryessa reservoir east to the ridge that forms the Napa/Yolo counties line, to Bureau of Land Management land that is part of Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument.

Napa County is famous for grapes, but also has cattle ranches, particularly in the east county. Livestock is listed second in value to fruit-and-nut crops in the 2017 Napa County crop report, though a distant second – the fruit-and-nut crops category that includes grapes had a $751 million value and livestock $3.4 million.

Parker said the Webber Ranch easement and the other three easements the Land Trust has secured along the eastern lake are contiguous. The land is part of a wildlife corridor that extends north to the Oregon border.

Webber Ranch is in a remote area away from well-traveled roads along the massive federal reservoir. The Greenbelt Alliance rates this part of the county at low risk for development. Still, the Land Trust and state officials say eastern Lake Berryessa could be attractive for ranchettes, estate homes and recreational homes.

The state funding came from the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program, which uses state cap-and-trade money for projects deemed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, preserve farmland and support the state’s food security.

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