San Andreas Corridor

Camatta Ranch

TNC helped secure a historic conservation easement at Camatta Ranch in San Luis Obispo, protecting over 27,000 acres of blue oak woodlands, grasslands and chaparral. We were part of an amazing coalition that worked in close partnership with the Morrison family, who’ve ranched these lands for generations. A conservation easement is a voluntary agreement between landowners and a land trust to maintain the  unique ecological values and open space character of the property, which remains in effect even if the land is sold or passed on within the family. 

The Morrison family approached The Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo (LCSLO) in 2019, hoping to find an alternative to partitioning off or selling the ranch. Instead, they wanted to preserve both their family’s multi-generational legacy and the vast, connected wildlands (an area roughly the size of San Francisco). With the help of LCSLO and partners including TNC, LegacyWorks Group and  multiple state agencies, that dream became a reality. 

“This easement means being able to continue working the ranch, cultivating it, being here, living on it and then passing it on to future generations. This was a make-or-break opportunity for the ranch,” said Haustin Morrison. “This property is [going to] be here way past me and my family. Our time here is short, but this property is protected forever.”

Camatta Ranch provides critical habitat for wildlife including pronghorn antelope, San Joaquin kit fox and California condor. Located in the largely unprotected Inner Coast Range, the ranch was a high-priority geography for TNC to protect because of its significant role in our strategic effort to create landscape connections for wildlife across California. With the easement in place, we’re proud to leave the management of the property in the trusted hands of The Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo and turn our focus towards the next high-impact opportunity to make sure nature has a place in California’s future.  

Learn more about the Camatta Ranch easement in this article from the Paso Robles Daily News.

Las Piletas Ranch

Purchased by TNC in 2022, Las Piletas Ranch boasts 13,500 acres of rolling foothills, grasslands and oak woodlands along with 24 miles of springs and seasonal creeks. The land is located in California’s Inner Coast Range, and protecting it has implications far beyond the boundaries of the property. Las Piletas Ranch represents a critical piece in a network of habitat that we are working to connect across the entire region.

By protecting Las Piletas Ranch, we are creating a climate-resilient wildlife linkage and creating a stronghold for sensitive species, including the California condor, pronghorn and San Joaquin kit fox. This acquisition builds on more than 30 years of TNC’s work in the region.

Now, to achieve our vision for the San Andreas Linkage, we’re focused on securing locations that expand on existing protected areas and connect them to other adjacent conserved lands, ultimately targeting hundreds of thousands of acres of protection across 31 properties.

Carrizo Plain National Monument

The Carrizo Plain stretches for 250,000 acres along the base of the Temblor Mountains, 60 miles east of San Luis Obispo. Its vast grasslands, as well as woodland habitats and vernal pools, sustain 15 threatened and endangered plants and animals.

Here may rest the future of such species as the California jewelflower, San Joaquin kit fox, mountain plover, blunt-nosed leopard lizard, pronghorn and giant kangaroo rat.

The Carrizo Plain is also the largest protected habitat along the Pacific Flyway, making it a birder’s paradise in winter. In spring, Carrizo’s rolling grasslands thrill wildflower enthusiasts with a breathtaking assortment of blooms.

THINKING BIG

In 1988, The Nature Conservancy partnered with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to undertake an ambitious project of acquiring and managing this great expanse of land.

Through cooperative effort, the initial 82,000-acre parcel not only grew to its current quarter-million acreage, it garnered federal support, becoming a national monument in 2001.

LANDMARK RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN AND CONSERVATION STRATEGIES

The partners worked tirelessly to develop a stewardship plan for this vast area. The resulting resource management strategy uses an innovative set of protocols to maintain and increase the populations of threatened and endangered species.

The Carrizo Plain project also represents a prime platform for scientific research. Together with our partners we have implemented cutting-edge conservation approaches, such as the use of satellite technology to track the vitally important giant kangaroo rat, a keystone species without which the ecosystem would collapse.