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Yolo Land & Cattle Company Wins National Environmental Stewardship Award
Contacts:
Stevie Ipsen, Director of Public Relations, CCA
(916) 444-0845
Nita Vail, Executive Director, CRT
(916) 444-2096
Anita Brown, Public Affairs Director, NRCS
(530) 792-5644
RENO, Nev., February 13, 2008—The California Cattlemen’s Association (CCA), California
Rangeland Trust (CRT) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are
excited to announce that the Hank Stone Family from Yolo Land & Cattle Company, Winters, Calif., was announced as
the 2008 Environmental Stewardship Award national winner on February 7, 2008, at the National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association (NCBA) Annual Convention in Reno.
"The Stone family is a tremendous asset to the cattle industry, serving as leaders in beef production,
rangeland conservation and natural resource enhancement," CCA President Bruce Hafenfeld said. "Their legacy
of environmental stewardship exemplifies the commitment of ranchers throughout the state who manage California’s
open spaces, water sheds and wildlife habitat."
Supporters and active members of the California agriculture community, Yolo Land & Cattle Company was
originally nominated by CCA and CRT for NCBA’s Region VI Environmental Stewardship Award, which the Stone
family won, putting them in the company of five other beef cattle operations for the national award.
"It is so rewarding to work with conservationists like the Stones," says Lincoln "Ed" Burton, State
Conservationist for NRCS. "They are big picture people, and their work and its results carries benefits across
two watersheds and their easement and ethics mean that their efforts will transcend time."
Hank and Suzanne Stone, owners of Yolo Land & Cattle Company, along with their sons, Scott and Casey Stone, and their
wives, Karen and Angela Stone, have made it a family goal to continually enhance and improve their ranching
operation while involving the community. Their efforts have brought together their neighbors, surrounding
school children, Audubon California and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, NRCS and other
state and local organizations and agencies. Their vegetative management program has become California’s largest
for the purpose of conducting annual spring grass burns and fall brush burns on a total of 45,000 acres in
western Yolo County.
"This is exciting, especially when it happens to a friend in our own back yard," said Devere Dressler, CRT
board chairman. "The Stones are a tremendous example of how California ranchers are using innovative techniques
to maintain the viability of their ranching operation while using existing ranching practices to protect and
enhance the natural environment. The partnerships they have created help insure that ranchers keep ranching and
their stewardship continues."
The Stone family’s operation fully lives up to its management philosophy: "Take care of the land and the land
will take care of you." In addition to vegetative management, a few of the projects that Yolo Land & Cattle Company
has implemented on their ranch and their landlords’ ranches include cross-fencing of pastures, fencing of ponds
and riparian areas, planting of native grasses, trees and shrubs, rotational grazing, grazing on Conservation
Reserve Program lands and invasive weed control.
"We are very honored to have been chosen for this award by the judges, NCBA, NRCS, and Dow Agri-sciences.
Through the Environmental Stewardship Award Program process we have had the ability to see firsthand what a great job ranchers are doing across
America to manage their lands in an environmentally beneficial and sustainable manner. This award helps showcase
what we can achieve with our many partners in being true caretakers of the land, and the continued value of keeping
ranchers on the land and having a viable ranching industry in California and the USA," Scott Stone said after
reflecting on the honor.
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