An Amador County farm established more than a century ago by the Winter family has been preserved in agriculture by the state and the Sacramento Valley Conservancy. The conservancy used some 680,000 dollars awarded by the state Department of Conservation to buy the 180-acre Winterport farm near Ione. Money for the purchase came from Proposition 40, the $2.6 billion open space and farmland preservation bond passed by voters in 2002.

 

Although Ione is 30 miles from Sacramento, development pressure in the scenic hills surrounding the tiny town has been building. A developer has purchased 16,000 acres near the Winterport farm. "We're in the path of development, and we're trying to encourage them to go the other way," Winterport farm owner Dan Port said in the release. He said he and his wife expect their grown children to eventually come back and take over the farm, which currently grows hay but has produced melons, pumpkins and Christmas trees. (end) am McClatchy-Tribune contributed.