POST, Arata family protect 1,312 acres of ranchland POST, Arata family protect 1,312 acres of ranchland (November 17, 2004)

By Marion Softky

Almanac Staff Writer

Driving to the Coast on Highway 84 and turning south on Highway 1, one of the treats is the view of farm fields and cows on the rolling hills near San Gregorio.

This scene will remain bucolic, free of estate houses and development, thanks to a deal worked out by the Menlo Park-based Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) and one of the Coastside's old farming families.

After months of negotiation, POST has agreed to purchase for $4.7 million a conservation easement from the Arata family on 1,312 acres of ranchland.

The easement will allow the Aratas to continue owning and farming the 1,161-acre ranch they bought in 1939, while preventing its subdivision and development. The Aratas will also take title to the adjacent 151-acre Seaside School Ridge property purchased by POST last year. The whole ranch will be permanently preserved for open space and agriculture by the easement.

Now in their 80s, brothers John and Clarence Arata have run cattle on their ranch for 65 years and on the Seaside School Ridge for 30.

"We've had lots of offers for our land from people who wanted to build on it," said John Arata. "Maybe we'd be billionaires if we sold the land, but it's not our thing. We want it to stay just the way it is."

POST President Audrey Rust hailed the agreement as a way of saving open land while leaving it in the ownership of the family that has cared for it for three generations.

"They have a deep connection to this land and don't want to see it developed," she said. "This easement allows them to protect the land and get some financial security."

John Arata Sr. bought the ranch in 1939, and the family raised dairy cattle there for 40 years. Today, the Aratas raise beef cattle and grow hay, oats and barley. John, 86, and Clarence, 84, still get up every morning to feed their 250 cows. John's son Gary, 56, does much of the farming.

"This is a great thing," Gary Arata said. "The ranch stays in the family, and POST gives us help to carry on."

Besides being highly visible from Highways 1 and 84, the hills offer sweeping views of land and ocean north to Montara Mountain and south toward Pescadero. These may someday be made accessible by trails connecting to POST's San Gregorio Farms and Pomponio State Beach.

POST, a private, nonprofit land trust, has saved almost 55,000 acres of Peninsula landscape since 1977 as permanent open space or parks. For more information, call Kendra Muscarella at 854-7976.

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