Conservation easements purchased for massive Tejon Ranch tract

 

The state on Thursday approved the purchase of conservation easements on 62,000 acres in Tejon Ranch, the first step in implementing an agreement that would protect up to 240,000 acres of wildlands  in one of the largest pieces of private property in California.

The $15.8-million grant from the state Wildlife Conservation Board will establish one of the largest conservation easements in California history.

“If the Tejon Ranch is the Holy Grail of conservation in California -- and it is -- the Wildlife Conservation Board is the people’s knight in shining armor,” said Joel Reynolds of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the five conservation groups that signed the 2008 agreement with the Tejon Ranch Co., which owns the 270,000-acre ranch that stretches from Los Angeles to Kern County and is thought to contain some of the state’s most ecologically rich landscapes.

The Conservation Board’s grant will be used by the Tejon Ranch Conservancy, which was created to manage the newly protected lands, to buy easements on five parcels that include Joshua tree woodlands, oak woodlands, Mojave Desert grasslands, riparian woodlands and San Joaquin Valley grasslands. 

Graham Chisholm, chair of the Tejon Ranch Conservancy board of directors and executive director of Audubon California, said Thursday’s announcement ensured the original deal is honored.

“While the 2008 agreement was a landmark achievement for the conservation of these lands, the purchase of these easements really cements the victory,” he said.

The conservation easements will prevent the Tejon Ranch Co. from future development of the properties but allows the ranching and hunting activities to continue. The Conservancy will have authority to plan for conservation of the land and public access to the property.

The Tejon Ranch Co. has agreed to place 178,000 acres in conservation easements, but that process is dependent on approval of the company’s development projects elsewhere on the ranch.

-- Julie Cart

Photo: A mule deer in Tejon Ranch in 2008. Credit: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times

 

Comments

[Chris VerPlanck]

I agree with Pablito. As a California native, it disturbs me to see what is left of the state's wild lands desecrated for a fast buck. As if we need any more foam tract mansions in Southern California anyway. And Paul Taylor, if you love unrestricted sprawl and conservative politics so much, I suggest that you move to Phoenix. You'd love it there.

[James B.]

This is great news! Thank God for protecting His property and His beautiful creatures, large and small.

[Pablito]

How sad is it that if you don't want to pave every acre of California, you get labeled as 'militant' and 'totalitarian?' It's stunning how some people have no view of the future past lunchtime.

[M Andrus]

THANKS to the Wildlife Conservation Board for good news! Now protect the mule deer from being shot. We have to find a way to save ALL our natural resources.

[Paul Taylor Examiner]

ECOPOLITICS
The Tejon Ranch owner-developers have caved in to the threats of the "green totalitarians." Militant, taxpayer-subsidized eco-groups have another scalped real estate venture to hang on their trophy wall of property rights extortion. Much of the Ranch (the largest single land holding left in Southern California) will now be held hostage by enviros under the legally-binding conservation easement.

Sadly, the Ranch developers have trusted that the eco-group will support commercial/residential development approvals outside of the easement areas. With Playa Vista as a painful example, there will be an endless parade of other eco-extortionists that will attack each of the future development entitlement applications for decades.

Militant eco-groups and green-obsessed bureaucrats have become an "axis of antagonism" that we can no longer afford.

[Matt]

Awesome! This goes a long way to protect one of the most critical wildlife migration corridors in the U.S. - the only connection between wild lands in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the California Coast Ranges. It also provides a permanent tract of prime habitat for one of the rarest birds in the world, the California condor.