California - Past Leopold Conservation Award Winners

2006 - Lange Twins Wine Estates

Brad and Randy Lange are third-generation winegrape growers on their 6,500 acre vineyard near Lodi. The Langes have improved natural habitat on their property through restoration of a riparian area along the Mokelumne River and the implementation of unique, eco-friendly pest-control methods.

2007 - Craig McNamara

Craig McNamara’s 450-acre Sierra Orchards is a diversified farming operation that includes field, processing, and marketing operations and produces organic walnuts and grape rootstock. Sierra Orchards is proof that an agricultural operation is able to be green without going into the red.

2008 - Chet Vogt, Three Creeks Ranch

Chet Vogt’s Three Creeks Ranch in Glenn County is a 5,300 acre 500 cow/calf operation. The core of Chet’s holistic approach to ranching is intensive managed grazing, which rotates the cattle among 32 fenced paddocks. This supports native grasses, healthy cattle, and increased water retention in the soil. Chet has also fenced off riparian corridors and livestock ponds as special management zones that receive short-duration grazing so that native plants can thrive and provide abundant nesting habitat for birds and other wildlife, including, among others, Tricolored Blackbirds, Box Turtles, California Quail, and Black-Tail Deer.

2009 - John Diener, Red Rock Ranch

John Diener’s Red Rock Ranch consists of approximately 5,000 acres in Fresno County. He farms an array of high value row crops, using innovative approaches to land, water, and wildlife management. Among other achievements, in the spirit of Aldo Leopold, he has had a lifelong commitment to rehabilitating his land. Upon discovering that some of his land was incapable of growing crops because of high salt levels from saline drain water, he developed a method to clean the soil and the saline water.

2011 - Tim Koopmann

Tim Koopmann is a third-generation rancher who owns and operates an 850-acre cow-calf operation within the San Francisco Bay Area in Sunol. The Koopmann Ranch is an agricultural gem surrounded by urban development.

2010 - Al Montna, Montna Farms

Rice grower Al Montna has created extensive habitat for wildlife, particularly waterfowl, through his 2,500-acre farming operation in Yuba City. He also led the way in replacing the practice of burning rice stubble with environmentally safe alternatives and reducing pesticide run-off into the Sacramento River by 90%. In 2009, he installed a solar power system to run the Montna Farms rice dryer.

The recently published Generations on the Land celebrates the conservation leadership of eight recipients of the Leopold Conservation Award. The book captures the sacrifices and rewards these outstanding agricultural families experience as they work to keep their operations economically and environmentally sustainable. Click here to purchase.