"Personal stories have a way of touching the hearts and minds of residents and policymakers in a way that reports and testimony and demonstrations don't," she said.
To that end, the pair last summer recruited 10 volunteers to share the joys and heartaches of living off the land.
"We framed it as a letter to the editor," ross said.
The ranchers will arrange photographs from family albums in the order they want them to appear. Background music of their choosing will be woven into their digital slide show, which will be recorded on DVDs.
Later this year, they will decide where and how to present their stories.
Storytellers include Dave Giocoechea, a sheep rancher who told his saga of "land speculators"… "politicians wanting a higher tax base" … "and uninformed citizens" attempting to "take away the lifestyle we have chosen."
In 2007, a developer sued Giocoechea and Sierra County for putting the rancher's property within a Farmland Security Zone, thwarting plans to build mountain getaway homes for urbanites.
Local ranchers raised $25,000 for a Giocoechea legal defense fund. The developer lost the case, and elected officials who supported him lost their seats. Giocoechea replaced the ousted Sierra County supervisor.
Gary Romano's story is a study in rugged entrepreneurial spirit. In 1989, his uncle offered him the last 65 acres of the family ranch, started by his grandfather in 1907.
Farming reminded him of childhood backaches from weeding his family's flower farm near San Jose.
"Did I want to go back to that?" said Romano, then a parks superintendent in Truckee. No, but he said he couldn't pass up the only chance to carry on the family heritage.
With hardly enough land for ranching and an average growing season of a mere seven weeks, Romano and his wife, Kim, turned old, nutrient-rich livestock corrals into beds of lettuce and root vegetables and erected greenhouses to grow micro greens.
Between steady sales to gourmet restaurants and farmers markets, and five-course dinners served in their lopsided 80-year-old barn, the Romanos' Sierra Valley Farms makes for a gem in the UCD storytelling series.
Driving a heavy-duty Chevy 2500 truck with her two hunting rifles at the ready, Maddalena said she has overcome her initial fears of getting in over her head with the ranch.
"People told my boyfriend he had better help out," Maddalena said. "Well, I just sent him packing up to Washington to get a job. It's what I needed to do to show myself that I can make this ranch work on my own."
She hopes her story will inspire other young adults to continue in family ranching.
"I hate to see kids sell because somebody tell them they can't do it."
Call The Bee's Chris Bowman, (916) 321-1069.
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