Ranching with Ricky Schroder

Coming West:

I grew up on Staten Island, but I fell in love with the West watching movies. Stagecoach with John Wayne, Clint Eastwood films. When I filmed Lonesome Dove, I decided I needed to live in the West.

Ranches big and small:

We had a big ranch in Colorado for 15 years. There you deal with things on a large scale. Now we have a smaller ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains. We call it the Take It Easy Ranch.

What he likes to work on:

My wife and I are fixing up three little cabins, 1,200 square feet each. I'm not a finish carpenter, but I know what a place needs.

Living with wildlife:

We have cougars coming through our property. The park service is studying them, and I help them do fund-raising for that. I've gone with biologists into the field tracking cougars.

More Sunset Views • Checking in with Maria Shriver • At home with Mark Harmon • On the ranch with Anjelica Huston • At home with Isabel Allende • At the table with Traci Des Jardins The importance of preserving land:

Ranches in the West are being bought up by people who aren't interested in raising livestock but just in developing them. I think land trusts and tax incentives to keep the land in ranching are really crucial.

His favorite project:

I got to film the first movie I directed, Black Cloud (2004), on Navajo lands. It's about a Navajo boxer. I had to convince the tribe I was going to make a movie that was accurate. They let us film in Canyon de Chelly, in Chinle, Arizona. I fell in love with the area.

His favorite place in fall:

In western Colorado, I love the beauty of aspen trees. Walking through a grove, just surrounded by shimmering leaves.

Schroder most recently starred in 24. He's currently working on The Andromeda Strain, an A&E miniseries based on the Michael Crichton novel.

Read more about the Santa Monica Mountains