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Jalama Canyon Ranch is protected under a conservation easement held by the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County—conserving 1,000 acres of prime ranch land and wildlife habitat in perpetuity. The successful funding effort included state, local, and private entities, with a first-time grant award of $1,782,500 from the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program (SALC) for the Land…
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When Bob Campbell, a Lompoc-area rancher, farmer, and business owner, faced regulatory obstacles related to the presence of endangered California tiger salamanders on his property, it was difficult to move forward with his ranching operations. The Land Trust for Santa Barbara County worked with Mr. Campbell and federal and state wildlife agencies to conserve 460…
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“As a family owned farm, welcoming in our fourth generation of farmers, we understand the importance of preserving our land and natural habitats for generations to come. We are proud to have accomplished a model for cooperation between agricultural businesses and conservation agencies in Santa Barbara County.” Bonipak CEO Joe Leonard
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The 950-acre Las Cumbres Ranch, owned by James and Patricia Selbert, was the Land Trust’s largest conservation easement of 2017. About the experience, Patricia Selbert said, “Working with the Land Trust was very rewarding. We have no interest in developing our property and the Land Trust helped us ensure the property would forever remain open…
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In 2015 the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County and The Trust for Public Land worked with the owners of Jordan Farms to protect their 780-acre property. The farm dates to shortly after California became a state and now it is permanently protected from future residential development by an agricultural conservation easement. The Trust for…
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Big Bend Ranch, 108 acres along scenic California Route 1, was originally part of historic, Rancho San Julian, a striking piece of Central California Coast landscape. This property consists of beautiful and valuable watershed, farmland, grazing, oak woodland and riparian habitat. It’s located in the El Jaro Creek watershed, a tributary of the Santa Ynez…
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Fairview Gardens Farm is a suburban organic farm located next door to the Goleta Valley Library for more than 50 years. It is one of the few remaining farms not lost to the urbanization of Goleta. Since the fall of 2022, the farm has temporarily closed to redesign and revamp its operations, transition to regenerative…
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The Land Trust for Santa Barbara County holds a conservation easement on the approximately 450-acre El Capitan Canyon Ranch and Campground. This property is a privately owned and publicly accessible campground with tent and RV camping, yurts, and cabin accommodations. There is also organic farming, pastured livestock operations, and hiking on adjacent state park land…
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In the 1980s and 90s, the late Walter Thomson granted some of the earliest conservation easements in Santa Barbara County. These Land Trust easements protect three adjacent Santa Ynez Valley ranches covering 1440 acres of land at the entry to scenic Happy Canyon. The Williams Ranch is 100 acres of land, featuring hilly coastal sage…
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In the foothills behind Santa Barbara, San Roque Ranch is one of the largest undeveloped properties along the city limits. The land was purchased by environmental investment group Cima del Mundo, which donated an easement on 880 acres of the 1,200-acre ranch. The easement includes the rich upper riparian woodland along San Roque Creek, reaching…
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Land Trust partnered with the owners of Rancho Monte Alegre, protecting the 3,109-acre historic ranch in the Carpinteria foothills. Since the late 1900s, the land has been used for cultivation of olives, citrus, loquats, figs, apples, and dairy farming. The conservation easement permanently limits development to 24 home sites while 300 acres of farmland are…
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In 1998, Walter Thomson donated a conservation easement over Rancho Felicia, part of the first thoroughbred training ranch established in the Santa Ynez Valley. Mr. Thomson wanted to guard the agricultural heritage of Happy Canyon, and make sure his ranch never became a ranchette subdivision—the easement allows only two separate parcels to be created, each…
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Formerly known as Rancho Aldea Antigua, Spanish for ancient hamlet, Whitecliff 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. The Land Trust has…
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When the City of Buellton voted to annex farmland owned by Norman Williams to build a new housing development, school, and city park, Mr. Williams was faced with paying a large fee to the State of California to cancel the Agricultural Preserve (Williamson Act) contract on his land. However, a new state law allows landowners…
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Thanks to the commitment and generosity of former ranch owner Steve Lyons, a key land parcel between Los Alamos and Orcutt is protected by a Land Trust conservation easement. Part of the original Las Flores Ranch and now known as North 4 Deer Ranch, the 653 acres of undeveloped property is on the southern slope…
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Eric Hvolbøll’s great-grandparents purchased La Paloma Ranch in 1866, and his mother lived there her entire life. 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 and agave. Their love of the land led the Hvolbølls to sell…
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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 and now avocados on the ranch. Today, the Persoon…
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If you have driven on Highway 246 into Lompoc, you have seen the sunlight flickering through the big walnut groves that are the hallmark of Hibbits Ranch, a 395-acre farm just east of the city limits. Four generations of the Hibbits family have farmed the Lompoc Valley, building a diverse and successful farming operation run…
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Thoroughbred owner and breeder Walter Thomson and his late wife Holly donated a conservation easement in 1986 over their Happy Canyon ranch. The easement ensures this spectacular, oak-studded land is never subdivided for dense development. The easement restricts cultivated agriculture to mapped areas outside of the oak savannah, native grassland and pine forest that serve…
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Freeman Ranch is the scenic backdrop to Refugio State Beach and the first conservation easement the Land Trust bought from a rancher on the scenic Gaviota Coast. Important natural resources on the ranch, including a large vernal pond, a 30-acre oak woodland, and one mile of Refugio Creek, are guarded through agricultural management practices that…
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Harold & Dorothy Briggs donated a parcel of land along the Santa Ynez River to the Land Trust in 1989, and their estate donated an adjacent parcel in 1995. The Land Trust then sold the ranch to a private buyer, retaining an agricultural easement to keep the property open for ranching and farming and to…
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Founded in 1932, Midland School is a college preparatory boarding and day school on a property with a rich cultural and environmental history. The mission of Midland is to teach the value of a lifetime of learning, self-reliance, simplicity, responsibility to community and the environment, and love for the outdoors. In this vein, Midland School…
OFFICE:
1530 Chapala St., Suite A,
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
MAILING:
P.O. Box 91830, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
PHONE:
(805) 966-4520
Non-profit tax ID:
#95-3797404
With your support, the Land Trust has protected over 57,000 acres of local land—and our work is far from over. Make a 100% tax-deductible gift today and double your impact! All year-end donations will be matched dollar for dollar up to $60,000, thanks to our friends Jack and Sheri Overall. Every penny counts!