Dayville, OR (Grant County)

The 33,337± acre Rudio Mountain Ranch is located in western Grant County, between the North Fork John Day and John Day River drainages, and near the riverfront communities of Dayville and Kimberly. Ranch ownership extends almost 14 miles from northwest to southeast and contains the ridge top of 5,700± foot Rudio Mountain, headwaters of Rudio Creek, numerous springs, stock ponds, and over 25 miles of year-round and seasonal creeks, some that are both fish-bearing and tributary to John Day River. The Ranch has been used for summer grazing and has accommodated up to 700 head of cattle. The property is fenced. Rudio Mountain Ranch has Water Certificates for irrigation and water storage for livestock, wildlife, and fire protection.

The topography is spectacular, filled with ridge tops, meadows, and some of the best elk and big game hunting in eastern Oregon, with a resident elk herd. Rudio Mountain Ranch is currently leased to an outfitter that has generated annual hunting income of $60,000 to $70,000. The Ranch is located in the Northside Game Management Unit and a total of six Landowner Preference Tags are available for ownership of this size (see Supplemental Information Package for details).

Rudio Mountain Ranch has been managed for commercial timber production for over 60 years and contains an estimated 68 million board feet of well-stocked stands of Douglas fir, white fir, and ponderosa pine, which provides long-term asset growth and opportunity to harvest or obtain potential values by selling carbon credits. Ecotrust Forest Management, Inc. has prepared a Carbon Report for Rudio Ranch which projects that over the first ten years, a sale of carbon credits could yield $815,000 to $2,700,000. A complete copy of the report is included in the Supplemental Information Package.

There is limited public access to the entire ownership and main entry routes are from Kimberly in the northwest, west from Highway 19 and John Day Fossil Beds National Monument and south from Dayville and Highway 26 along Franks Creek Road.

The BLM owns isolated parcels within Rudio Mountain Ranch property that provide additional habitat for hunting. There are no public easements to the BLM lands through the Ranch.