Regenerative Agriculture at C&R Ranch!

On Friday, March 13th, the NCRLT took a small group of guests to C&R Ranch’s western Tehama County operations, nestled in its blue oak woodland foothills. C&R Ranch is a holistic ranching operation with co-benefits for cattle and humans, as well as improving the soils and native wildlife. They focus on raising cattle humanely, while cultivating healthy soils and plant life that is not only beneficial to the cows they raise, but also native wildlife.

A picture of the ranch from the Ekland’s patio, what a view!

When the Charlotte and Roy Ekland purchased the land, the soil was thin and eroding from long-standing conversion of native perennial grasslands to non-native annual grasses. Roy gave us an overview of his regenerative agriculture practices and explained how the whole system works to build the soil, reduce erosion and promote a healthy ecosystem. They plant a mixture of grasses, forbs, and legumes to provide high quality feed for the cattle, and to fix nitrogen and create a healthy soil microbiome.

Wildflowers helping enrich the soil with plant root exudates!

As we stood in the field listening to Roy speak passionately about the land, we observed butterflies, moths and bees pollinating the flowers, and green lacewings, an important, native, predatory insect, flying around. Birds were abundant at the Eklands property, with twenty-four species recorded during our visit that included mallards, mourning doves, American kestrels, red-tailed hawks, oak titmice, robins, white and golden-crowned sparrows, western meadowlarks, red-winged blackbirds, and a few species of woodpeckers. On the blue oaks, evidence of red-breasted sapsuckers could be seen on the trunks and thick branches. The abundant blue oaks also had several cavities where white-breasted nuthatches and acorn woodpeckers could build their nests. The Ekland’s house contains a native garden with western redbud and sage, both buzzing with native bumblebees including the listed Crotch’s bumblebee (Bombus crotchii) which serves as proof that this property is prime wildlife habitat.

A Crotch’s bumble bee (Bombus crotchii) on a western redbud (Cercis occidentalis)!

C&R Ranch is divided into two properties: the oak woodland rangeland, which is roughly 1,200 acres in western Tehama County near Paskenta, and the summer irrigated pastureland, 140 acres in eastern Tehama County near Los Molinos. Both parcels were submitted for SALC funding last year, with the Los Molinos property selected for funding in this round to reflect its threat from high risk of subdivision and development in and around Los Molinos.

Many questions were asked, all answered knowledgeably.

The western portion of the Ranch was 325 acres when the project began, but the Eklands recently added 841acres. Along with a neighbor, these modern-day, soils-heath stewardship pioneers are employing regenerative agriculture practices on their property to improve not just the soils, but ecological processes which rely on it, and to restore a community land ethic to a place suffering from a century of conventional degradation.

The holes of a sapsucker in an oak tree!

NCRLT is closing another regenerative rangeland project in 2026, from SALC Round 10, and will continue working with regenerative rangeland operators to propose their lands for protections so producers like Roy and his neighbor can be assured that their lands and stewardship practices are conserved in perpetuity to maintain sustainable and regenerative agriculture for California’s future.

A few of Ekland’s cows enjoying the sun!