Now that a landmark acquisition has been made official, the Big Sur Land Trust, in its 45 years of existence, has now put over 45,000 acres of land into conservation—an average of more than 1,000 acres per year.
On Monday, Nov. 6, the nonprofit announced it had closed a long-anticipated deal to acquire the 5,105-acre Basin Ranch in the Sierra de Salinas, the mountain range that stretches along the northeastern side of the Santa Lucia range and west of the Salinas Valley. The ranch is located to the north of Arroyo Seco and Carmel Valley roads.
The nonprofit envisions the land remaining a vital wildlife corridor in perpetuity, and the $8.68 million sale was made possible by the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife and Wildlife Conservation Board, as well as with private donations.
“Land conservation is always the first step toward our much longer commitment to diligently restore and care for essential habitats,” BSLT president and CEO Jeannette Tuitele-Lewis said in a statement, adding that the nonprofit will be partnering with the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County to manage the land to ensure the protection of natural and cultural resources.
Tom Little Bear Nason, the tribe’s chairman and president, adds in the statement that the tribal knowledge of traditional ecological stewardship “will build the resilience to wildfires and other extreme climate-related events on Basin Ranch and enhance Big Sur Land Trust’s capacity to manage these lands as well as lands beyond this site.”
Both the tribe and land trust will work together going forward “to determine appropriate opportunities for managed public access” to the land, per the statement.