Rancho el Jabalí / Alma Rosa Winery
Santa Ynez Valley - 533 acres

For a long time, Richard and Thekla Sanford have been champions of protecting the environment and of building Santa Barbara County into a world leader in fine wines. They are taking their ethos a step farther, through a conservation plan being developed with the Land Trust.

The Sanford's original home and vineyard on Santa Rosa Road, called Rancho el Jabalí (wild boar), shows their desire to maintain harmony between farming and nature. Extending from the Santa Ynez River to the peaks of the Santa Rosa Hills, Rancho el Jabalí provides a valuable wildlife linkage to the Gaviota Creek Watershed south of those peaks. Over 250 acres of oak blue and coast live oak woodland on the ranch have been kept protected, with no agricultural use, for 24 years. Eagles and Peregrine falcons nest in rocky outcrops atop the watershed.

Much more land on Rancho el Jabalí could be developed into vineyards. Working with Land Trust biologists, the Sanfords decided first to have a conservation plan designed to create strong buffers around natural resource areas and to maintain wildlife passage routes from the river to the top of the watershed. Areas for vineyard or other cultivated agriculture, and for family and employee homes on the ranch, will be identified in a conservation easement the Land Trust intends to purchase in 2008.