Leavitt Lake Ranches of Vina, CA, was named the 2009 National Environmental Stewardship Award winner last week during the 2010 Cattle Industry Annual Convention in San Antonio. Leavitt Lake Ranches is owned and operated by Darrell Wood, wife Callie, son Ramsey and daughter Dallice, and has family ranching ties dating back to the 1860s.

Working in segments of agriculture and without any cattle or land when they wed in 1981, Darrell and Callie had a vision to restore ranches that had been owned by Darrell’s family. They began to acquire ranches and cattle, leasing property and gradually buying the former family property.

Today, they own about 3,670 acres of private land, manage 25,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management permits and lease another 11,000 acres between the winter range annual grasslands of the Vina Plains and the summer range on high elevation meadows of Lassen County. They run 600 mother cows and 400 yearlings and farm 600 acres of alfalfa and 900 acres of irrigated pasture. The cattle herd is made up of spring and fall calving herds of registered and commercial Angus cattle.

The Wood family has implemented a number of practices aimed at protecting and improving the land. They have:

Leavitt Lake Ranches represented National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Region VI in the 2009 ESAP program. Other finalists included:

The award is sponsored by Dow AgroSciences, USDA's National Resources Conservation Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and is administered by NCBA and the National Cattlemen’s Foundation. For more info or to nominate a cattle operation, visit www.environmentalstewardship.org.
-- National Cattlemen’s Foundation release