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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend April 20, 2006 The owners of one of the largest ranches in Jackson County, the C2 Cattle Co. on Highway 140, have granted an easement of 1,660 acres to the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Preserve and protect Ranch owners donate wildlife-rich, forested 1,660-acre easement for conservation use By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune A family with deep roots in the region’s timber industry has placed 1,660 acres of forestland on their ranch under the permanent protection of a conservation easement. The owners of the more than 9,000-acre C2 Cattle Co. ranch, one of the largest in Jackson County, gave the easement to Southern Oregon Land Conservancy. The easement means the forested area on the ranch, which borders both sides of Highway 140 some 20 miles east of Medford, will always be managed in an environmentally friendly way, explained Diane Garcia, conservancy executive director. "The conservation easement is an important part of the sustainability we want for our forestland," said Jim Coonan, a Portland businessman and a son of ranch founders James and Lurline Coonan. "It makes good business sense, and it’s good for the beauty of the property," he added. Advertisement Established in 1963, the vast property is a working ranch with both cattle and horses. Its forestlands teem with wildlife, from the American marten to the western toad, and includes 93 bird species, according to the conservancy. The forested areas keep the local streams cool to provide a healthy habitat for anadromous fish. In addition, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has determined the ranchland is especially sensitive winter range for blacktail deer and is important winter habitat for Roosevelt elk. During a tour of the ranch Wednesday afternoon, manager Bill Jones, a 1978 graduate of Crater High School who has worked on the property for 17 years, said both firewood for the ranch as well as timber are cut on the property each year. The goal long has been to maintain a healthy environment across the land, Jones added. "Dad was very knowledgeable about the forest," Jim Coonan said of his father, who died in the mid-1990s. "He loved the outdoors." Harold Mortensen, Coonan’s great uncle, owned Pelican Bay Lumber Co. in Klamath County and his late father worked in the timber industry as a young man in Southern Oregon and Northern California, he said. Mortensen began working in the region’s timber industry in the early part of the 1900s, he said. "When my dad, who was born in 1916, came to visit my great uncle, he began working in mills but he also worked out in the woods," Coonan said. Both his father and great uncle would have appreciated the decision to preserve the land’s health and beauty, he said. However, the easement, which Coonan worked on for seven years, would not have been possible had it not been for his mother’s vision to protect the forestland, he said. "I am really proud of my mom and family for doing this act of preservation for the property," he said. "Our family has long-term ties to Southern Oregon forestry." The ranch is in a limited partnership with family members, he said. "We felt the forestland was a good thing to focus on," he said. "This was something we felt we could get our arms around. We felt it would add value." Coonan, who spent the summers of his youth working on the ranch, said the family wants to continue harvesting timber from it but make sure it’s done in a responsible, sustaining manner. "These easements are growing in popularity but it’s something new to our family," he said. The easement, which is now part of the deed to the property, is the largest obtained by the conservancy, Garcia said. "This historic ranch is highly visible and an important working landscape in the area," Garcia said. "It’s a spectacular view — from the creek bottoms to the rolling hills and up to the forest areas." Conservation easements Diane Garcia, executive director of the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, describes a conservation easement as a flexible tool that allows landowners to permanently protect land while still enjoying all the benefits of land ownership. Since the nonprofit group formed in 1978 to help protect local farms and forests, it has obtained conservation easements on 4,229 acres in southwestern Oregon. For more information about the easements, contact the conservancy at [email protected]. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at Preserve and protect ">[email protected] . 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