Phyllis Faber

The Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT), a nonprofit that has had tremendous success preserving land and agriculture in the county -- and one that has served as a model for other communities -- came out of the friendship between Phyllis Faber, biologist and EFM co-founder, and the late Bill and Ellen Straus, West Marin dairy ranchers.

California's 1972 Proposition 20 established the Coastal Commission as the overarching land use authority along the state's coast, replacing the patchwork of government entities that had been operating under various local rules (or even whims). The 1976 Coastal Act made the Coastal Commission permanent and required each county with a coastline to develop a coastal plan as part of its general plan.

In terms of protecting coastal property, "down zoning" was the main tool for preventing subdivisions, doing so by specifying zoning restrictions -- say, 10 acres of land per house or 60 acres of land per house.

However, Faber says, down zoning and other pressures were having the unintended effect of squeezing out agriculture. Ellen Straus and Faber came up with the idea of asking the Coastal Commission to accept a land trust as a tool to curb development, making it easier for family farms and ranches to stay in business.

As a balance to working on so many projects with "big horizons," Harris says, he wanted to learn about local issues, and a close friend who had recently finished the EFM training enthusiastically recommended that he take the 18-week course. He's glad he listened.

Says Faber, "Here we were, a rancher's wife and a female biologist from Mill Valley. If not for the pressure of the incipient coastal planning, these men probably would have laughed us out the door."

Instead, the national Trust for Public Land, founded by Mill Valley resident Huey Johnson, showed Faber and Straus how to set up land trusts. The Coastal Commission went for the concept, and MALT came into being in 1980.

Today, more than 40,000 acres of the county's 110,000 acres of agricultural-zoned land are protected "in perpetuity" under MALT conservation easements. This represents 61 family farms and ranches, and the trust is still growing, having made three acquisitions at the end of 2007.

Besides helping to preserve farmland, MALT works to keep farming and ranching viable -- and in the public consciousness. MALT volunteers lead tours of ranches and family farms, educate young people through the Farm Field Studies Program, and run a speaker series called "Food & Farming on the Urban Edge."

"In many ways, my life has been magic," says Faber, now 81. "My work has been a great pleasure to me, and for it to have been useful, as well, is gratifying."

She adds, "The open spaces of the West give you the feeling that you can do anything. It's really quite remarkable. Everything seems possible."