The Marin Agricultural Land Trust closed on a $1.5 million agricultural easement on the Gallagher Ranch, which borders Black Mountain and federal parkland and includes pastureland and forest traversed by Lagunitas Creek. The five co-owners of the 330-acre ranch, which has been in the family since the 1800s, put the property on the market in years past because some of the cousins did not want to keep investing in the upkeep. They had interest from buyers who weren’t interested in ongoing agriculture, but with the money from the easement, brothers Kevin and Paul can buy out their cousins, keep the property in the family and continue grazing cattle. Paul noted in a press statement that the cousins could have made more by selling the property. “They could have easily just said no [to the easement]. Our cousins helped us out, and were thankful for them.” The Giacomini family leases about half of the ranch to graze dairy cattle, and MALT says the brothers want to lease 18 acres for organic row cropping. According to MALT, the new easement is one of the first to be funded in part by a new state program called the Sustainable Agricultural Land Conservation Program, which provided $490,050 for the project. California State Coastal Conservancy granted $475,000 and the county provided $519,950 through its Farmland Preservation Program, covering the remainder of the easement’s cost.