About Yavapai Ranch

Yavapai Ranch is a family owned and operated 100,000 acre cattle ranch located in northern Yavapai County. These lands have been continuously ranched for over a century.

Old-growth woodlands on Yavapai Ranch include ponderosa pine at least 250 years old and Alligator juniper over 850 years old.

The 35,000 acres of Yavapai Ranch lands that would be conveyed to the U.S. Forest Service include:

• Old growth woodlands with ponderosa pine that are at least 250 years old and Alligator juniper that are more than 850 years old.
• One of the last remaining antelope habitats in northern Arizona.
• Unfragmented habitat for deer, elk, mountain lion, wild turkey and other wildlife species.
• Rare pictographs and other important cultural sites.

The Yavapai Ranch is comprised of alternating sections of federal and private lands within the Prescott National Forest. The “checkerboard” ownership pattern of this ranch includes the vast majority of the privately-held and undeveloped in-holdings within Arizona’s national forests. Checker board lands are alternating sections of federal and private lands, a land ownership pattern dating back to the days of the trans-continental railroad

By participating in this land exchange, ranch owner and manager Fred Ruskin is honoring a promise his father made to the Forest Service more than 25 years ago. “My father promised the Forest Service that he would give them an opportunity to do a land exchange before we developed the land on our ranch. This is that opportunity.”