Agricultural Easements

The Land Trust holds conservation easements to protect agricultural land, natural resources and the scenic beauty of a dozen ranches and farms in north and south Santa Barbara County.

Our easements make sure the land is kept open for agricultural use, and prevent it from being converted for residential or commercial development.

Each easement is negotiated with the landowner. Some easements are purchased by the Land Trust. Others are donated, qualifying the owner for federal and state tax incentives. The Land Trust works with ranch and farm owners to prepare qualifying easements, and we are then responsible for annual monitoring to ensure that easements are followed by the current and future owners of the land.

Agricultural easements generally do not provide for public access, although some ranch and farm owners allow Land Trust Events such as ranch or farm tours for our members and invited guests to better understand agriculture in our county.

Rancho Aldea Antigua (23 acres)


Rancho Aldea Antigua (Spanish for "ancient hamlet") runs along the western ridge of the Franklin Creek watershed, just outside the Los Padres National Forest. It is one of several dozen small ranches and farms that create the beautiful, open landscape between Foothill Road and the forest land.

In recent years, the Land Trust has secured conservation easements on much of the land in the upper Franklin Creek and Santa Monica Creek watersheds, on Rancho Monte Alegre and the Horton Family Ranch.

The ranch is owned by David H. Anderson, a founder, long-time board member and current general counsel of the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County, who has been a leader in voluntary land conservation locally and nationally for over two decades.

The ranch is a key part of the open space view looking east from the proposed Franklin Trail. This historic hiking trail route, long closed by litigation involving a prior landowner, will connect from a trailhead near Carpinteria High School through private ranch land and all the way to the Santa Ynez Mountains ridge and East Camino Cielo. The Land Trust worked with the County and The Trust for Public Land to negotiate trail access agreements from the ranch owners. The County Parks Department is pursuing grant money to rebuild and reopen the trail.

Horton Family Ranch (104 acres)


Bill Horton and Glenna Berry Horton placed 104 acres of their avocado ranch in a permanent conservation easement to guarantee that most of this scenic and productive avocado ranch will remain undeveloped in perpetuity.Bill?s grandparents founded the ranch, and two succeeding generations have grown lemons, then avocados, on the ranch ever since.

"Our ranch has been in the family since the late 1800s and we expect to pass it on to the next generation. Our forebears would be gratified by the benefit the conservation easement provides to the community," says Bill Horton.

Rancho la Purisima (1,007 acres)


Only three miles north of Buellton and alongside Highway 101, the eastern rolling hills of Rancho la Purisima are what people see for over a mile traveling north from Buellton. Paul & Tina McEnroe have owned the 1,000 acre ranch since 1994, and run a successful cattle and horse breeding/training business.

The McEnroes have made active efforts to protect Valley Oak seedlings on their ranch, and to control an outbreak of invasive yellow star thistle, working with the Natural Resource Conservation Service and a neighbor.

"We support the principles of conservation easements," says Paul McEnroe. "We love our ranch as it is, a large singular parcel made up of a central valley surrounded by hills and ridges containing farm fields, open range and canopy oak land. This conservation easement will ensure our ability to live on the ranch as far as we can see into the future."

Rancho Dos Vistas, Gaviota (1,406 acres)


At the top of Refugio Pass and just west of former President Reagan’s "Western White House," Rancho Dos Vistas is now governed by a conservation easement that allows only three home sites, and sets aside ninety percent of the land for wildlife habitat. The Land Trust helped landowner Cima del Mundo secure a state income tax credit for donating this easement, under the Natural Heritage Preservation Tax Credit Act sponsored by Senator Jack O’Connell. Cima del Mundo also donated a 2.5 mile trail easement that connects two sections of federal land in Los Padres National Forest. Some day Rancho Dos Vistas’ trails may connect to the Arroyo Hondo Preserve and to Refugio Road, allowing a "coast-to-crest" public trail route that is isolated from other agricultural and private home sites.

La Paloma Ranch, Gaviota (750 acres)

Eric Hvolbøll’s great-grandparents purchased La Paloma Ranch in 1866, and his mother has lived her entire life there. Over the decades, the ranch in Venadito Canyon has been a sheep and cattle operation, and farmed for walnuts, tomatoes, lima beans, and most recently avocados. Their love of the land led the Hvolbølls to sell a conservation easement on the ranch in 2002.

The Land Trust arranged grant funding from the State Coastal Conservancy, County of Santa Barbara and State Resources Agency to have this land permanently restricted to agriculture. The family retained the right to build three family homes and two employee dwellings, but gave up the right to further subdivide or develop the property except for agricultural use. Ecologically valuable communities of coastal sage scrub, chaparral and riparian habitat are protected under the easement as well.

El Capitan Ranch, Gaviota (650 acres)


The national conservation group The Trust for Public Land (TPL) recently completed fundraising to acquire 2,500 acres on the El Capitan Ranch, to become part of the El Capitan State Park. In a related transaction, our local Land Trust now holds conservation easements on the remaining 650 acres of El Capitan Ranch. These easements provide for continued operation of the private El Capitan Campground and the existing equestrian training ranch. Outside of these already developed areas, only two new homes may be built, and the land is otherwise restricted for agricultural use.

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