More than a 200-mile drive away, in the rolling oak savanna and rugged chaparral rangeland of coastal California—a distinctly different landscape from the Sierra Nevada—prescribed burning can also be an important tool. A few days after a heavy fall rainstorm, I join Mendocino County rancher and volunteer firefighter Kyle Farmer at Magruder Ranch along with his wife, Grace, and their children, June, 7, and Walter, 5.
Read MoreThis year, Ingel-Haven Ranch turns 100. Though many of you might know us as Magruder Ranch, our land, still named after the first two generations to call it home, is called Ingel-Haven. This year we celebrate its centennial, but as I push the sixth generation to live on this land on this new swing with old chains, I am not just thinking about the last 100 years—I am thinking about the next.
Read MoreI first set foot on Ingel-Haven Ranch one hot day in August of 1978. I was there for a steam bath on the banks of the Russian River that flows through the Magruder property. Mac and his sister Helen had initiated the ceremony years earlier for friends and neighbors, but this was the first time I had participated. I didn’t know what to expect.
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