For about a week Rob and I had been discussing the ranch. Out of reach during the week’s storms, we could only wait for a break in the weather and a couple days of drying before heading out to determine damage. In the meantime, we decided it was time to purchase a new ranch vehicle. [...]
Archive for the ‘Land Ownership’ Category
Unfounded Fears, New ATV
Posted in Land Ownership, Ranch Management, wildlife, tagged Yamaha Rhino on March 28, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Locked Out – The Battle for LaCosta Ridge
Posted in Land Ownership, Land Patents, legal access, legal issues, Ranch History, real estate, right-of-way, tagged right-of-way on December 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Accessing property via a road that has no deeded rights is common. In the hills around Livermore, very few of the landowners have right-of-ways that have been validated by an official grant of easement. On the other hand, very few of these access roads are disputed. The land seldom changes hands, so the owners are [...]
Conservation Culture Wars
Posted in Endangered species, hunting heritage, Land Ownership, landowner political issues, wildlife conservation, tagged conservation banking, consumptive uses, Endowment Accounts, HCP on June 30, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
There’s a war going on. It’s a conservation culture war. Traditionalists believe hunters and fishermen have been major supporters of wildlife and there is plenty of evidence to support that claim. Those who oppose consumptive uses would like to find a way to supplant that financial underpinning for wildlife habitat. This is nothing new, but there are [...]
What’s a Duck Club Worth?
Posted in co-ownership, Hunting Property For Sale, investing, Land Ownership, purchasing real estate, real estate, tagged Duck Club Purchase on June 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The value of a duck club is as subjective as any real estate evaluation on earth. An appraiser would look at duck club sales and compare the price, annual operating costs, taxes and acreage to come up with a value. A few days ago I got a call from a duck hunter who was evaluating [...]
Ranch Ponds in March
Posted in Land Ownership, Ranch Management, wildlife conservation, Wildlife habitat, tagged pond management on March 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Traveled to the ranch last weekend to take a break and look over the ponds we worked on last fall. http://hunterlandowner.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/pond-repair-at-the-ranch/ The pond repairs will produce water for cattle and wildlife. Stock ponds are also breeding habitat for endangered amphibians, the California red-legged frog and California tiger salamander. The winter rains were well spaced and appropriately [...]
Creating a Partnership that Lasts
Posted in co-ownership, Hunting, Land Ownership, Partnerships, real estate, tagged Creating a Partnership Agreement that Lasts on March 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I recently received the following email. The question was so appropriate that I decided to make a post on the topic. Good morning Rich, I bought a 100 acre property here in Ontario, Canada in January with three partners. We have known each other for over 25 years and have hunted together forever. We [...]
How the Endangered Species Act Affects Wildlife Conservation through Highest and Best Use
Posted in Endangered species, Endangered Species Act, Land Ownership, real estate, wildlife conservation, Wildlife habitat, wildlife management, tagged Endangered Species Act, Highest and Best Use, Wildlife Mitigation on December 24, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The concept of highest and best use is most used by developers and appraisers. A developer will tell you that when a property is economically ready to be improved to a more productive use, it’s time for him to step in. An appraiser will tell you that a property’s highest value is based upon the [...]
Life Estates – They Serve a Purpose
Posted in Land Ownership, selling land, real estate, tagged Life Estates, selling land on May 16, 2009 | 1 Comment »
To many of us, the Life Estate appears to be something that we’ll never see. I remember first learning about life estates when I took my first real estate course in 1977. It seemed like a neat trick. A life estate can be granted to an individual by the owner of a property. First there [...]
The Checkerspot Butterfly
Posted in butterflies, Endangered species, Land Ownership, Wildlife habitat, tagged butterlies, threatened species on June 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This is a photo of a chalcedon checkerspot butterfy. The photo was taken by Rob Fletcher on May 28, 2008 in the hills south of Livermore. May is the time when the butterflies are out at the ranch. A different (from the one in the photo) species of checkerspot, the bay checkerspot, is closely associated with serpentine soils. Some [...]
Partition – Ending Co-tenancy
Posted in Farm Management, Land Ownership, Partnerships, selling land, real estate, co-ownership, ending co-ownership, purchasing real estate, tagged partitian, ending co-ownership, undivided interest on May 4, 2008 | 9 Comments »
The situation Ten parcels of ranch property owned by one partnership with about 25 members, one LLC with three members, a family trust with 20 heirs and four individuals including one who was deceased and still on title. That was the status of our ranch in year 2003. We owned an undivided interest equivalent [...]
