Sardella Ranch was Tuolumne County’s first property to be placed in a conservation easement, protecting the land for future generations. Julie and Mike Sardella manage land that is grazed in a way that sustains natural growth of grasslands and benefits wildlife habitat.
Sardella Ranch Tuolumne County
‘The animals come first’ Mike and Julie Sardella, owners of Sardella Ranch in Tuolumne County, have taken steps to preserve the 523-acre ranch, keeping it as natural as possible for grazing livestock and as habitat for wildlife. “Growing up with my dad, I was always taught to never overfeed the property and to rotate the cows,” Mike Sardella says. Their cattle leave the property for part of the year to allow the land to regenerate. Now retired, the couple oversees management of the property and tends to horses, chickens and dogs. “The animals come first,” Julie Sardella says. The chickens and the horses are fed and watered, she says, “and then we take our high-energy border collies for a half-mile walk—and then we get our coffee.” The Sardellas lease the ranch to a cattleman who shares the same conservational values. The rancher’s cattle are seasonally grazed to prevent erosion and sustain natural regrowth of grasslands. Wildlife habitat and water quality have benefited from the Sardellas’ efforts to enhance the riparian habitat along Rough and Ready Creek, a tributary of the Tuolumne River that runs through the ranch. By using only a small portion of their water for stock watering, the Sardellas devote the remainder to naturally enhancing the riparian area between the creek and the working land. “When you have these open spaces, you have a whole ecosystem,” Mike Sardella says. “We have
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