Owners team with Nature Conservancy to preserve 11,190 acres
near San Juan Bautista
Saving the world takes oodles of patience, money and the
tenacity to do it a piece at a time.
Owners team with Nature Conservancy to preserve 11,190 acres near San Juan Bautista
Saving the world takes oodles of patience, money and the tenacity to do it a piece at a time.
On Wednesday, the Nature Conservancy and owners of the sprawling 11,190-acre Gabilan Ranch proved it can be done when they announced an arrangement that will preserve the ranch “in perpetuity.”
The ranch is part of the Gabilan Mountain range and is a sprawling and prime example of the region’s rich and diverse habitats. Just south of Fremont Peak State Park, it includes oak woodlands and savannas, wildflower fields and maritime chaparral. Rich in marshes, ponds and springs, the property is a haven for wildlife and plants in an otherwise arid region.
Blacktail deer, elk, bobcat, jackrabbit, great blue heron and the endangered tiger salamander and California red-legged frog can be found on the ranch, which the Conservancy says has been managed superbly and thereby has fostered a strong ecosystem.
“We are retiring all the development rights,” said Christina Fischer, Project Director for the Nature Conservancy in the Monterey Bay.
The ranch is owned by the Gabilan Cattle Company: the third-generation Reeves-Baldocchi-Boyle family, heirs of Dr. Rollin and Arline Reeves, who purchased Gabilan Ranch in 1929. The Reeves family chose to donate a significant portion of the value of the easement – $800,000 – to The Nature Conservancy as part of their collective commitment to preserving the ranch.
The Conservancy acquired a conservation easement from the company for $4.2 million. It means that even if the owners decide to sell the property, the same nondevelopment rules will apply to the new property owner, and that includes the ability to exercise mineral rights. So no semis filled with limestone are going to be hauling out of the area, at least not in this century.
Fischer said acquiring the development rights to the ranch is key in preserving the bigger environmental picture in California. The ranch contains one of three broad, gently sloping nestled plateaus that make up the Gabilan range.
“Each of those plateaus provide astounding values of plants and animals, and this protects one of those three plateaus,” Fischer said.
Through the Salinas and Pajaro rivers, the ranch and the range provide a crucial wildlife corridor that links the Los Padres National Forest, the Mount Hamilton range and the Diablo Mountain range.
“The ranch is an important component of a regional wildlife corridor we hope to protect and maintain,” Fischer added.
