When The Nature Conservancy purchased the Bixby Ranch in 2017 from the Baupost Group — an East Coast hedge fund — Santa Barbara County residents and environmentalists alike breathed a sigh of relief that the threat of development was lifted. Now, a historic collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County, and neighboring Vandenberg Space Force Base protects the property from development in perpetuity.
On November 16, what is now the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve — named after the couple who donated $165 million to the conservancy for Bixby Ranch — came under a conservation easement through $15 million in funding from the Department of Defense with the easement to be held by the Land Trust. As explained by Meredith Hendricks, who heads the Land Trust, a conservation easement buys development rights and must be held by a third party.
In this instance, 64 buildable lots were part of the century-old cattle ranch on Point Conception. For the Chumash, Point Conception is the westernmost point where souls can leave the earth. For environmentalists, the Gaviota area has cultural significance and vast ecological variety. The right to build the 64 lots was extinguished by the conservation easement, Hendricks said.
Mark Reynolds, director of the Point Conception Institute at the Preserve, said the easement and the funding provided a unique opportunity: “The extraordinary ecological richness of the Preserve provides scientists a rare look at how wildlife and natural systems can adapt unfettered to climate change, sea-level rise, and other pressing issues for California and the world.”
Reynolds thanked the donors to the preserve and the partners to the deal, which included Congressmember Salud Carbajal, whose office acted as a liaison. “The partnership protecting this land will preserve a key portion of our region’s storied open spaces … well into the future,” Carbajal said in praising the outcome.
The DOD’s interest in Dangermond might not be obvious, but housing developments near military bases is a common public safety issue. The Defense Department has a Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) program to facilitate cost-sharing agreements with private conservation organizations. Vandenberg Space Force Base, which shares a four-mile border with the Dangermond Preserve, now has a four-mile buffer zone.
For the Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy, the conservation easement is more than a buffer; it’s a “win for science, culture, and climate resilience and a model for future permanent legal land protection,” Hendricks said, gained through a “wildly beautiful and complicated” deal.