The Kinsey family bought a stretch of California countryside in 1914 that would eventually become a 6,625-acre working cattle ranch. After more than a century, the family has taken steps to ensure the property remains protected from development. The place is for cattle, forests, rivers and wildlife rather than new development.
The family wanted to protect it
David worked on the ranch since his grandparents, Charles and Alice Kinsey, bought it in 1914. Though David passed away in 2024, prior to the easement’s completion, this was his biggest dream: to protect the land.
The Northcoast Regional Land Trust (NRLT) has completed a conservation easement on the Kinsey Ranch in Benbow, California, according to a report by North Coast Journal. We’re grateful to the Kinsey family and our project partners, including the Department of Conservation and Strategic Growth Council, for helping create an outcome that benefits agricultural use, wildlife, and conservation for generations to come,” Zach Wenderott, NRLT Project Manager, said in a release. It’s too gorgeous and big a property to just let go to development,” Marjorie Johnson Yates, whose family has owned the ranch for three generations, told the outlet. But it is much better to preserve, rather than to have to restore,” Tom Strobel, who represented the Kinsey family throughout the process, said.
This permanently protects the agricultural, forest and watershed values while allowing the family to continue working it as a ranch. The agreement does not mean the family no longer owns the property. But the easement permanently places restrictions on how the property can be developed, allowing it to remain working land even if it changes hands in the future. “It’s a great example of conservation and agricultural communities coming together to keep working lands protected and productive while preserving important habitat for the wildlife that depend on them. The conservation project took years to complete and was driven in part by David Johnson, a member of the family that had owned and worked the ranch for generations. “My brother really wanted to conserve it. If this hadn’t been funded, our kids couldn’t afford to keep it. But now even if they do sell it, it will be protected as our family had wanted. “We all know that with time and money, damage to the land can be repaired and restored to its natural state.
