Property Type: Open Space
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Yellow Foxtrot, La Purisima Hills
The Land Trust joined with a private equity firm landowner and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to balance vital conservation goals, economic growth, and agribusiness operations in the La Purisima Hills. The collaboration resulted in a mitigation agreement that allows for planned development of a vineyard on the property while conserving 320-acres of prime…
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Tranquillon Conservation Project, Lompoc
In January of 2020, citing the State of California’s goal to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2045, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted to approve construction of the Strauss Wind Project. The project includes 29 wind turbines capable of generating enough energy to power about 43,000 homes. The construction and operations of the…
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Jalama Canyon Ranch, Lompoc
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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Las Cumbres Ranch, Los Alamos
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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Hay Hill, Montecito
Conserving land is sometimes the work of generations. In 2017, the Land Trust and the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden joined forces to preserve Hay Hill, 88 acres of important wildlife and plant habitat—but efforts to conserve Hay Hill began more than a decade before. In 2005, longtime Garden supporter Ann Koepfli, recognizing the conservation value…
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North Campus Open Space
To the west, eucalyptus woodlands welcome migrating monarch butterflies at both the Land Trust’s Coronado Butterfly Preserve and the Goleta Butterfly Preserve at Ellwood Mesa, while intact coastal dunes to the south provide nesting grounds for the threatened snowy plover. Riparian habitat and willow woodlands spring up to the north and east. The UCSB North…
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Sedgwick Reserve
Set in the heart of the Santa Ynez Valley, the Sedgwick Reserve is a hub used extensively for research, arts, and education programs by local and global institutions. The Sedgwick Reserve contains much of the watershed of Figueroa Creek, from rolling oak savannah, to native grassland, to the gray pine forest extending into the Los…
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Ennisbrook Open Space
Tucked into the Montecito neighborhood of Ennisbrook, this open space also known as the San Ysidro Oak Woodland, is an easy, shady trail with a charming stone bridge over San Ysidro Creek and a Monarch butterfly eucalyptus grove. When the Ennisbrook subdivision was proposed in Montecito, the community and the County knew mitigation would be…
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More Mesa
The More Mesa open space includes oak woodland and riparian habitat and has nice trails that are popular with local birdwatchers, bikers and horseback riders. Just west of Hope Ranch, this 300-acre open space is beloved and remains one of the community’s highest preservation priorities. While most of More Mesa is owned by an out-of-state…
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El Capitan Canyon Ranch and Campground
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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Mackie Mountain
Now surrounded by Vandenberg Village homes, Mackie Mountain’s 17 acres of open space are conserved forever under an easement held by the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County. Also known as Muffin Hill, Mackie Mountain Preserve protects regionally unique Burton Mesa Chaparral vegetation with easy walking trails. From the top of Mackie Mountain, enjoy the…
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Williams Ranch, Santa Ynez Valley
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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San Roque Ranch, Santa Barbara
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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Rancho Monte Alegre, Carpinteria
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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Rancho Las Cruces, Gaviota
On one of the larger private ranches in the county, owners Jonathan & Nancy Kittle granted a conservation easement on 900 acres of upper watershed land to The Nature Conservancy in 1973. The easement, which protects the oak woodland, chaparral, grassland, small streams and springs on this part of Rancho Las Cruces, was transferred to…
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Rancho Felicia, Santa Ynez Valley
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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Rancho Dos Vistas, Gaviota
At the top of Refugio Pass and just west of former President Reagan’s “Western White House,” Rancho Dos Vistas is now protected by a conservation easement that allows three home sites, setting aside the remaining ninety percent for wildlife habitat. At the time, the Land Trust helped landowner Cima del Mundo secure a state income…
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Whitecliff, Carpinteria
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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Rowny Mission Canyon, Santa Barbara
Near the top of Mission Canyon, this scenic land was donated to the UC Santa Barbara Religious Studies Department by The Rowny Foundation. Because the Rowny family did not want it developed, the estate gave a conservation easement to the Land Trust at the same time, limiting use of the land to activities of the…
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Mar y Cel, Montecito
Translating to Sea and Sky, Mar y Cel is a 350 acre estate in the Santa Ynez Mountain foothills above Montecito. The property includes the well-known Tea Gardens built by Mr. & Mrs. Henry Bothin in the early 1900s. One of Montecito’s most intriguing properties, the site contains the remains of an intricate array of…
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La Purisima Conservation Bank, Lompoc
Rancho Purisima, LLC acquired the 2,800-acre La Purisima Ranch in early 2012 to pursue a conservation effort to protect the threatened and endangered California tiger salamander and Western spadefoot toad on the property. In 2014, the owner and Conservation Land Group then began working closely with the Land Trust, the local community, and federal and…
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Las Flores North, Orcutt
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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Bodger Oak Woodland, Lompoc
In 1990, the John Bodger & Sons farming company donated this conservation easement to the Land Trust over a scenic oak grove adjacent to Santa Rosa County Park, retaining the rights for their family to use the land for hiking, picnicking, horseback riding and nature studies, and agreeing to keep it open to allow the…
