JMLT campaign underway to save Harvey Ranch

Anyone who takes a hike along the trails within Harvey Ranch is met with breathtaking views of Moraga and beyond. Hoping to preserve a 143-acre section of the ranch and create a 15,500-acre natural area by connecting the three protected landscapes of Las Trampas Regional Wilderness, San Leandro Watershed and Painted Rock Preserve (which includes Carr Ranch, Buckhorn Creek, and Rocky Ridge), the John Muir Land Trust has been tasked by property owner Charlene Harvey to help her fulfill a dream to preserve the location against development.

Harvey’s husband, Jim, first bought the nearly 200-acre property and lived there in a small cabin before they met and married over 60 years ago. After their marriage they lived in San Francisco, but kept adding on to the structure at the ranch for their weekend getaways and eventual build-up of cattle.

“Jim always saw the ranch as a buffer between the very developed Bluffs and the very rural nature of Bollinger Canyon,” said Harvey. “We always talked about how to do that and protect it, but he didn’t really take that step in his lifetime.”

After her husband passed away, Harvey continued to visit the ranch on weekends and in summers with her three generations of family, but none of them had plans to make it their primary residence, “so I began to think about how I could protect it from development.”

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