Profiles in Preservation

Grossi Ranch, Indian Valley

Before there were phone lines along the handsome stretch of Indian Valley that wends west from Novato, before there was electricity to light the farmhouses there or to power the dairy equipment, even before there was a paved road for the teams of horses to haul fresh milk from the Grossi home ranch to the morning train in town, James Joseph Grossi, Sr. was milking cattle, building fences, and taking pride in the place that his parents bought in 1917.

Now 92 years old, Mr. Grossi admits that he’s seen a lot of changes over the years. One change he decided he didn’t want to witness was the loss of the family farm which is located at the heart of the Stafford Lake watershed just two miles from the sprawling city of Novato. In December, 2003, he with his four children sold a conservation easement to MALT, permanently protecting their 870-acre Marindale Ranch from non-agricultural development.

Farmland preservation is not a new concept to Mr. Grossi. In the mid 1950’s, he served on a Novato incorporation committee and spearheaded the effort against adding the 4000 acres of ranchlands within the Stafford Lake watershed to the Novato city limits. But deciding to sell his own development rights and permanently safeguard the land for the production of food and fiber “…takes a long time, and it takes a little thinking,” Finally, Mr. Grossi says, “I came to the point when I thought it was proper to do so. My best thought is to preserve it as it is.”

MALT paid the appraised value of $1,870,000 for the easement. The ranch is a mosaic of forest and grasslands that provides habitat for wildlife, productive agricultural soils, and some of the best rangeland in the County. It was operated as a dairy for 70 years by three generations of the family and is currently used to raise replacement dairy heifers and beef cattle. The easement value was enhanced by restrictions on house size and by establishment of a special conservation area along Novato Creek which runs the entire length of the ranch and drains into Stafford Lake. The sale of a conservation easement allowed the family to plan the property’s transition to the next generation and create a ranch endowment to help keep it self-supporting as operation costs continue to increase.

Funds for the purchase came from three sources. The Department of Conservation’s California Farmland Conservancy Program contributed $700,000, the California State Coastal Conservancy contributed $585,000, and the remaining $585,000 was raised from MALT members.

Mr. Grossi’s grandfather Domenico arrived in San Francisco from Switzerland in 1892 with no English and little money. When he discovered that jobs were scarce in the City, he crossed San Francisco Bay and walked 25 miles to Point Reyes Station. He worked for seven years on a ranch near Tomales Point, milking cows and ferrying butter across the bay to the village of Hamlet for shipment to San Francisco.

At the turn of the century, he leased a 1400-acre ranch in Olema. There he met and married Theresa Buzzini. There the first of their 11 children was born. In 1903, the family moved to an Indian Valley ranch, and in 1917 Domenico purchased a neighboring property where James and his brothers and sisters grew up. Over the years, the thrifty immigrant acquired a total of seven ranches, four of them now within Pt. Reyes National Seashore.

When the properties were divided among Domenico’s children in 1952, James, who had married Rose Halter seven years earlier, chose the home ranch. Despite the hard work, (“It was tough going,” he recalls. “All hand work. You milked the cattle by hand, you did it all by hand.”), he’s never regretted it. “I’ve had a good life here,” he admits. It was, perhaps, the only life he could have imagined.

His children—James, Jr., Ralph, Ed, and Beverly—worked on the ranch as they were growing up, attended high school and college, then “selected their own futures,” as their father puts it. James, Jr. is a civil engineer; Ed raises organic vegetables and owns a wholesale organic nursery in Cotati; Beverly is employed by the U.S. Post Office. Ralph, a founding board member of MALT, now serves as president of American Farmland Trust, a national organization working to stop the loss of productive farmland and promote farming practices that lead to a healthy environment.

“The nieces, nephews, and grandkids all look at this as home, no matter where they live,” says James, Jr. His father, seated at the kitchen table, nods in agreement. “You own a place that long, you have that feeling.”

Ellen Straus, MALT Co-founder
Phyllis Faber, MALT Co-founder
Barboni Ranch, Hick's Valley
Big Rock Ranches, Nicasio
Burbank (Anna) Ranch, Tomales
Crayne Ranch, Tomales
Giacomini Ranch, Point Reyes Station
Grossi Ranch, Indian Valley
Ielmorini Ranch, Nicasio
Ielmorini-Moody Dairy, Valley Ford
Jensen (Anna) Ranch, Tomales
Jensen (Bill & Eileen) Ranch, Tomales
Jacobsen Ranch, Chileno Valley
Leiss Ranch, Chileno Valley
Parks (Lois) Ranch, Tomales
Moore Ranch, Nicasio Valley
Poncia (Eugene) Ranch, Tomales
Poncia (Al) Ranch, Tomales
Pozzi Ranch, Tomales
Straus Home & Dairy Ranches, Marshall
Tomales Farm & Dairy—East, Tomales
Tomales Farm & Dairy—West, Tomales
Zimmerman Ranch, Marshall

Home | Site Map | Terms of Use