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Local contact:
Kathryn Kelly, Yolo Land Trust, (530)
795-3110
A 137-acre Yolo
County farm with significant
agricultural, historical and aesthetic
value has been permanently shielded from
development and set aside for
agriculture. The Pollock Farm has been
placed in an agricultural conservation
easement thanks to the efforts of the
owners -- a longtime Yolo County farming
family -- and the Yolo Land Trust. The
California Department of Conservation
and the Great Valley Center provided
funding support for the project.
“This project is
another step in our effort to maintain
agricultural production on some of the
best soil in the world,” said Secretary
for Resources Mike Chrisman, a
fourth-generation rancher. “Development
whittles away a good portion of
California’s tremendously fertile
farmland each year. Keeping as much of
our farmland in agriculture as possible
is vital to the future of our state.”
The farm, owned and
farmed by Herb and Lynnel Pollock with
their sons Brad and Greg, grows a
variety of commodities, including
specialty seed crops. With a farming
history in Yolo County dating to the
1890s, the Pollock family is a leader in
the local agricultural community.
In addition to
serving two terms as Yolo County
Supervisor, Lynnel Pollock has been
president of the Yolo County Farm
Bureau, was one of the founders of the
Yolo Land Trust and currently is the
executive director of the Cache Creek
Conservancy.
“As a county
supervisor, I have seen the intense
pressure there is to develop prime
farmland such as this farm,” she said.
“We purchased this farm with the
intention of permanently protecting it
with an agricultural conservation
easement. It gives me great satisfaction
to look across these fertile fields and
know that this land is preserved for
farming.”
Herb Pollock heads
the family’s farming operation and has
served the agricultural community in
various positions over the years. He
currently serves on the California Corn
Growers Association and is on the board
of the Knights Landing Ridge Drainage
District.
“My family began
farming in Yolo County over a hundred
years ago and my boys are continuing
that heritage,” he said. “This soil is
the best there is. It is essential to
protect it, because once it’s lost, it
is lost forever, and there’s no
replacement.”
Located within 1.5
miles of Woodland’s sphere of influence
and just southeast of the community of
Yolo, the farm is adjacent to an
Interstate 5 interchange. The property
fronts a three-quarter-mile reach of
Cache Creek, which provides important
wildlife habitat. The property is known
to have historical and cultural
significance. It was part of the Yolo
Orchards, an early agricultural
enterprise in the county. Buildings
onsite include an old Wells Fargo stage
stop and bank building dating back to
the late 1800s.
“We are delighted and
honored to have worked with the Pollock
family and our funding partners to
protect this farm,” said Kathryn Kelly,
executive director of the Yolo Land
Trust. “It is really exciting to know
that generations in the future, this
farm will be growing food for someone’s
great, great grandchildren and will be
providing habitat and open space in Yolo
County.”
The annual value of
Yolo County's farms and ranches is more
than $300 million in direct production.
The Yolo Land Trust is a private,
non-profit corporation founded in 1988
by farmers, community leaders and
conservationists dedicated to protecting
Yolo County's farmland and habitat
lands.
“Between 2000 and
2002, Yolo County lost, on average, 11
acres of farmland every day to
development,” Department of Conservation
Director Bridgett Luther said. “Given
the Pollock Farm’s location, it’s not
hard to imagine pressure from commercial
and residential developers in the near
future. This property is a great example
of what our California Farmland
Conservancy Program (CFCP) is designed
to protect.”
The
CFCP is designed to ensure that the
state's most valuable farmland will not
be developed. Although California leads
the nation in agricultural production,
farmland is being converted rapidly for
development and other uses. Nearly
54,000 acres of irrigated farmland were
taken out of production in the state
from 2000-02.
Begun in 1996, the
CFCP has provided $47 million in grant
funding to permanently shield 33,000
acres of the state’s best and most
vulnerable agricultural land from
development.
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