Profiles in Preservation

Lois Parks Ranch, Tomales

Seated in front of her woodstove on a rainy winter morning, Lois Parks seems equally at home discussing agronomy on her Tomales ranch or remembering early childhood years in China with her Baptist missionary parents. Her conversation on each topic is knowledgeable and well-considered, the same approach she took to deciding to sell an agricultural conservation easement to Marin Agricultural Land Trust in 2001.

The 198-acre Parks Ranch is the 44th Marin County ranch to be preserved by MALT in cooperation with the owner. The Parks Ranch is part of the Tomales pastoral landscape where almost 4,000 acres of farmland are permanently protected by MALT easements. "We are proud to add this important property to the other permanently protected land," said Executive Director Bob Berner.

Lois says she considered several things in making her decision to sell a conservation easement on the property: She and her late husband Roy bought the ranch in 1964. It's adjacent to their home ranch which has been in the family since 1880 when it was purchased by Henry Goudy, Roy's great grandfather; Lois' son Glenn operates the Parks Ranch now and wants to continue the family tradition. Last but not least, she mentions that a farmer historically depends on his or her property to provide money for retirement, and though you'd never guess it, Lois is 81 years old.

"I worried all these things around until I came to the conclusion to sell an easement to MALT," she says.

Roy and Lois Parks met when they were both students at Marin Junior College (now College of Marin). Lois completed her studies at The University of Redlands near San Bernardino, earning a bachelor's degree in English. Roy graduated from UC Davis with a degree in agriculture. They corresponded by letter for six or seven years before Roy asked Lois to marry him in Golden Gate Park one day in 1943.

She had thought about becoming a missionary or a librarian, but quickly settled into life as a chicken farmer's wife. They had a family cow or two then, and Lois made butter and all the whipped cream the family could eat.

"We gathered eggs every day and sold them to the hatchery in Petaluma," she remembers. "Everybody had chickens then. Ours were free-range. Being out on the grass made the yolks nice and yellow, but that was a no-no then." They switched to raising sheep, and found a ready market for the meat and wool until Roy's untimely death in 1980.

Roy and Lois also raised four children: Bob lives in Sebastopol, Sharon lives in Tomales, and Wayne lives in Oregon. Glenn lives on the Parks Ranch where he tends a flock of about 200 ewes. He also leases part of the pastureland to another rancher who raises replacement dairy heifers. It's a good combination, according to Lois. The sheep eat the short grasses, and the cattle eat the tall grass.

Besides her busy life on the ranch, Lois plays the organ at the Tomales Presbyterian Church. She also is well-known as a historian and as one of the most tireless of the founders of the Tomales Regional History Center which has grown from a file cabinet of memorabilia to an important regional museum. She loves to travel the world doing geneological research on her family and that of her late husband, but she always loves to come back home to her ranch in Tomales.

"I thought about it for a long time. I decided it should be kept in open space. Farming seems the best choice," she says. "If you buy stocks, you can't really depend on them. If you have land, it's always there."


Ellen Straus, MALT Co-founder
Phyllis Faber, MALT Co-founder
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Ielmorini-Moody Dairy, Valley Ford
Jensen (Anna) Ranch, Tomales
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Jacobsen Ranch, Chileno Valley
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Parks (Lois) Ranch, Tomales
Moore Ranch, Nicasio Valley
Poncia (Eugene) Ranch, Tomales
Poncia (Al) Ranch, Tomales
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Straus Home & Dairy Ranches, Marshall
Tomales Farm & Dairy—East, Tomales
Tomales Farm & Dairy—West, Tomales
Zimmerman Ranch, Marshall

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