Jalama Canyon Ranch is now protected under a conservation easement held by the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County! The successful funding effort included state, local, and private entities, with the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program (SALC) awarding the Land Trust a $1,782,500 grant to protect the 1,000-acre ranch in perpetuity.

“When we conserve land in perpetuity we mean forever and then some—deals like Jalama Canyon Ranch bring new financial resources to our region, help secure our local food systems, create new partnerships, and support the climate resilience our shared future depends on,” says Land Trust Executive Director Meredith Hendricks. The Land Trust is pursuing an ambitious pipeline of conservation projects, expanding its network of local, state, federal, and private funding sources to leverage dollars for large scale conservation with a balanced approach centering people, ecology, and the economy. The Land Trust’s efforts continue to result in increased public funding and long-term investment in the future of Santa Barbara County agriculture and the next generation of land stewards.

This new partnership with the SALC program and the resulting grant is the first time the program has funded land conservation in this region. The Land Trust is looking forward to the opportunities this new funding source will unlock for many more Santa Barbara County farmers, ranchers, and agricultural landowners and the ensuing land conservation gains throughout the community. The Jalama Canyon Ranch easement illustrates the Land Trust’s unique ability to connect diverse groups and bring new funding sources to the county, strengthening local economies and food supply chains.

Read more about the conservation of Jalama Canyon Ranch, the significance of SALC funding, and what the ranch’s new owner, White Buffalo Land Trust, has in store via The Independent, News-Press, Edhat, Noozhawk. 

 

*Image courtesy of White Buffalo Land Trust.