BUILDING together
Community-driven CONSERVATION
DEAR FRIENDS,
In an era of evolving challenges—from shifting funding landscapes to climate change—your local support has never been more vital.
While state and federal programs face budget constraints and policy shifts, MALT’s community-driven approach continues delivering results. Through your generous support, we’ve maintained momentum protecting Marin’s irreplaceable farmland, demonstrating that local solutions powered by local commitment remain our strongest foundation.
This year marked significant milestones exemplifying our collaborative strength. We celebrated protecting Parks Home Ranch, a multi-year partnership showcasing how landowners, donors, and community members work together preserving our agricultural heritage. We also reached an extraordinary stewardship milestone—over $4 million invested since 2002 in ongoing care for protected lands, ensuring these landscapes thrive for generations.
Our small grants program continued supporting innovative projects across the county, with two funding rounds building climate resilience and enhancing biodiversity. Our Stewardship Assistance Program grants supported 20 easements improving soil and water quality. These targeted investments, made possible by your support, help working lands adapt to changing conditions while maintaining productive capacity.
The challenges facing agriculture and the environment are real, but so is our community’s determination to meet them. When public funding fluctuates, local partnerships become even more crucial. Your support enables us to respond quickly, and build resilience our farming community needs. We remain committed to building with landowners and supporters who understand that protecting farmland means protecting our future. Thank you for being essential partners in this vital work.
With gratitude,
Lily Verdone, Executive Director
Diana Giacomini Hagan, Board Chair
Protecting PARKS HOME RANCH
Historic Tomales Farmland Safeguarded for Future Generations
In a significant conservation victory in the fall of 2024, MALT permanently protected the 177-acre Parks Home Ranch in Tomales through an agricultural conservation easement. This farmland, which has been a cornerstone of Marin County’s agricultural landscape since the 1880s, will now remain in farming in perpetuity.
Nestled just north of downtown Tomales, Parks Home Ranch reflects the story of Marin County agriculture. The main house, dating to around 1860, stands as one of the oldest inhabited structures in the county. For nearly 150 years, five generations of the Parks family have tended this land, adapting through the years from chickens and sheep to beef cattle while maintaining its agricultural roots.
Today, the pastures are leased to the neighboring Stemple Creek Ranch for its cow/calf operation. But the Parks family envisions an even brighter future, with plans for sheep herds, vegetable plots, a farm stand, and educational opportunities for students and young farmers.
The ranch’s conservation value extends far beyond agriculture. Eighty percent of the property is designated as Farmland of Local Importance, while 88% is considered a priority for biodiversity conservation. The ranch provides critical habitat
for endangered species including California tiger salamander, tricolored blackbird, and red-legged frog.
Bordered by the Glenn Parks and Crayne ranches—both already protected by MALT—Parks Home Ranch completes a vital block of 11,465 contiguous protected acres, creating essential wildlife corridors across the region. The ranch also safeguards the headwaters of Tomales Creek and threequarters of a mile of stream habitat flowing into Tomales Bay.
This $795,000 easement was funded equally by Marin County’s Measure A Farmland Preservation Program and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Agricultural Land Easements program. The protection ensures that future generations of Bay Area residents will continue to benefit from the ranch’s agricultural productivity and ecological richness.
Read the full story: malt.org/parks-home
Our dream is for this ranch to be a wellspring of agricultural innovation. Being so close to downtown Tomales, we have a tremendous opportunity to use this ranch as a classroom, and we hope it can be a springboard for the next generation of Marin County farmers and ranchers.”
MIKE
PARKS | FIFTH-GENERATION RANCHER & CURRENT OWNER
$4 MILLION invested in land stewardship
Building Regional Resilience, One Ranch at a Time
In a significant milestone for Marin County’s agricultural community, MALT has now invested more than $4 million in land stewardship projects over the past 22 years. This accomplishment demonstrates how communities can invest back into the land to restore healthy food systems and build regional resilience through strategic land stewardship.
This $4 million investment builds on MALT’s foundational work protecting more than 58,500 acres through 98 agricultural conservation easements. But land protection is just the beginning— active land stewardship ensures these working landscapes remain productive and resilient to a changing climate.
An Evolving Need
The pace of MALT’s stewardship investment has accelerated dramatically in recent years, with over $3 million invested in the last five years alone. MALT’s grant journey began with the Stewardship Assistance Program (SAP) in 2002, since then funding more than $2 million to landowners with MALT easements for soil quality, water management, and sustainable practices. When California entered its driest period on record in 2021, MALT responded with the emergency Drought Resilience and Water Security (DRAWS) initiative, committing $829,969 to 70 water infrastructure projects over two years. Building on these successes, MALT launched the small grants
program in August 2023, offering $200,000 in total grant funding open to all Marin County agricultural producers.
This $4 million milestone, made possible by our generous donor community, demonstrates that strategic local investment creates thriving agricultural communities essential to good environmental stewardship. Beyond the direct impact, MALT’s stewardship investments often serve as catalysts that help ranchers and farmers access additional public funding from state and federal sources.
By supporting projects that demonstrate measurable outcomes—improved water efficiency, enhanced soil health, and increased carbon sequestration—MALT grants can position producers to successfully compete for larger government funding opportunities, multiplying the conservation impact across Marin’s agricultural landscape and ensuring these working lands flourish for future generations.
Adding solar panels to our barn was something we had been considering for a long time. But we didn’t know when we would have been able to do this.
MALT’s small grant was the push in the right direction.”
MARISSA SILVA | MARSHALL HOME RANCH, SMALL GRANT RECIPIENT
BIG IMPACT, small grants
Building Climate
Resilience in Agricultural Working Lands
Our third round of the small grants program—offering up to $50,000 grants and open to all Marin County agricultural producers—focused on climate-smart practices that reduce emissions, increase water security, and promote livestock well-being through regenerative agriculture and carbon sequestration.
GALLAGHER NORTH BEND RANCH, POINT REYES STATION | $35,000
No-till seeder for perennial grasses and carbon sequestration. Innovative wool pellet fertilizer showcases circular economy approaches.
GILARDI FAMILY FARM, PETALUMA | $45,000
Mobile chicken tractor with solar-powered robotic feeding system for weather resistance and improved efficiency.
LANATTI RANCH, TOMALES | $35,000
Pond liner installation, pond bank restoration, and water system upgrades for drought resilience and biodiversity.
You can have all the pasture in the world, but without water infrastructure, you can’t manage it properly. This grant will let us build the foundation we need to rotate cattle properly and restore this ranch’s soils.”
BILL DELLINGER | LEDGER RANCH
LEDGER RANCH, TOMALES | $45,000
Water distribution system supporting 10+ paddocks for rotational grazing and carbon sequestration.
MARSHALL HOME RANCH, TOMALES | $40,000
Solar array installation reducing operational costs and carbon footprint.
BIG IMPACT, small grants
Building Resilience in Marin’s Working Lands
Our fourth round of small grant funding supported innovative grazing systems that enhance agricultural productivity, build climate resilience, and create vital wildlife habitat through strategic pasture management and conservation infrastructure. This $200,000 investment across 5 projects is transforming 2,500+ acres through cutting-edge grazing practices.
SHEPHERDS OF THE COAST, TOMALES | $15,000
Native-owned business expanding prescribed grazing with mobile fencing to increase pasture quality and mitigate wildfire risk.
BARBONI HOME RANCH, HICKS VALLEY | $50,000
Rangeland seeding with compost and soil amendments addressing soil acidity, enhancing water retention, and forage production.
MOREDA DAIRY, TOMALES | $45,000
Enhanced grazing systems and mobile irrigation to boost forage production and recycle wastewater.
My hope is to demonstrate the validity of prescribed grazing—to show how ecology and agriculture can go together in a really profound way.”
JENNA COUGHLIN | SHEPHERDS OF THE COAST
MILLERTON CREEK RANCH, POINT REYES STATION | $50,000
Conservation grazing infrastructure on Golden Gate National Recreation Area with fencing protecting western pond turtle habitat.
MCISAAC RANCH, OLEMA | $40,000
Water system rehabilitation supporting conservation grazing on 750 acres while protecting endangered steelhead trout habitat.
National Park Service grazing lands
Farmland protected by Marin County
Unprotected farmland
SONOMA COUNTY
PACIFIC OCEAN
MARIN COUNTY
Five-Year Donor Impact Overview (2020–25)
LAND PROTECTION FUNDING
$9.7M (45%) Marin County Measure A
$2.9M (13%) State & Federal Funds
$9.0M (42%) MALT funds through donor support
$21.6M total invested
LAND PROTECTION ACHIEVEMENTS in agricultural conservation easements permanently protected by public funding partners
4,706 acres—8 farms and ranches 58% awarded
STEWARDSHIP INVESTMENTS
$1.2M (40%) Stewardship Assistance
$800,000 (27%) Small Grants
$178,415 (6%) Other
$829,969 (27%) Drought Resilience
STEWARDSHIP ACHIEVEMENTS by MALT supported by MALT stewardship grants through donor support
$3M awarded 80 farms and ranches 100% privately funded
Financials 2024–25
REVENUE
Contributions/bequests
Government grants
Program and other income
Investment revenue
TOTAL REVENUE
$6,318,702
$802,790
$24,815
$2,489,161
$9,635,468
EXPENSES
Land protection—easement purchases
Stewardship and community programs
Total program
Fundraising
Management & support services
Total fundraising and administration
TOTAL EXPENSES
$800,767
$2,567,642
$3,368,409
$1,269,912
$1,099,857
$2,369,769
$5,738,178
*This report reflects unaudited financials from July 1, 2024–June 30, 2025. Find more: malt.org/finances
Building Together for Marin County
Every MALT donation unlocks matching funds from county and state programs, powering our land protection and community work.
Find our complete 2025 donor list: malt.org/2025-supporters
The MALT Impact Report is published by Marin Agricultural Land Trust, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.
Editor: Matt Dolkas
Graphic Design: shirleycreative.com
Printer: ThirdBay Letterpress Inc.
Photos: malt.org/photo-credits
Printed on recycled paper containing soy inks.
Post Office Box 809
Point Reyes Station, CA 94956
(415) 663-1158 | farmland@malt.org
Thank You for Protecting Marin’s Future
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED Your support helps protect Marin’s working lands. As climate change, economic challenges, and increasing uncertainty grow, your gift ensures that our farms and ranches can adapt, endure, and thrive.
