Great News for Californians
by Greg Haegele, Deputy Executive Director, Sierra Cl 
on 05.16.08
Some very good news was announced in California last week, the kind of news that gives you hope and helps get you through other environmental struggles that might not be going so well.
At a press conference on a sunny hillside 60 miles north of Los Angeles, the Sierra Club and others unveiled a deal to protect the largest contiguous parcel of land designated for conservation in California history -- 240,000 acres of stunningly diverse landscapes on the privately-owned Tejon Ranch south of Bakersfield. (Think about that: This is 2008 and we're still preserving massive hunks of land -- in Southern California no less!) At 375 square miles, the preserve of desert, woodlands, and grasslands is eight times the size of San Francisco and nearly the size of Los Angeles.
Our point man on the deal, senior regional representative Bill Corcoran, put it well: "For Southern California, this is the ecological equivalent of the Louisiana Purchase. It is the keystone for protecting Southern California's natural legacy, a crossroads where our state's mountains, valleys, and desert meet. Visitors to the heart of the ranch see California as it was—wild and achingly beautiful." The area is home to home to the endangered California condor and the kit fox.
The protected lands will be overseen by a new entity, the Tejon Ranch Conservancy, which will see to the permanent protection of about 178,000 acres through a combination of dedicated conservation easements and designated project open spaces. Also, around 10,000 acres of the ranch will be set aside for 37 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, which will be rerouted to the ranch's land.
In return for keeping 90 percent of the property in its natural state, the Club and its allies agreed not to challenge the development of 30,000 acres for industrial, resort and residential purposes on the western and southwestern edge of the ranch, near Interstate 5.
Now, this was not an overnight deal. Corcoran, who began working on the issue eight years ago, has been negotiating an agreement for 20 months along with former Club Director Jim Dodson and in consultation with local volunteer leaders; he describes the negotiations as "often difficult but always in good faith."
As Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope explains in his blog, back in 2005 and 2006, Tejon offered to set aside much smaller parts of the ranch for preservation, potentially allowing much more development than may occur under last week's agreement.
But the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Audubon California, Planning and Conservation League and Endangered Habitats League turned down the offer and insisted that conservation not be limited to so little of the Ranch. The Sierra Club told the Tejon contingent that we would make saving Tejon one of our top California priorities, and that long and bitter litigation would precede any development approvals. The company came to the table, and last week we were able to announce this win for wildlife. As Carl says, "The Tejon victory is a sober reminder of the importance of setting your sights high, staying at the negotiating table, and being willing to bargain hard."
Image credits: The photo of the tree on the ranch land is taken by Bill Corcoran of the Sierra Club; and the press conference photo is by the Sierra Club's Jeff Gantman.
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There is still so much unspoiled space in this country. It's hard to believe it with all the terrible sprawl that happens but this place is huge and that's why it's so exciting when something like this happens.
I wish someone would just pass a law saying that we can't pave one more square inch of unpaved land. If you need more, then build up!
The dissenting view is that developing even 10% of the land is too much in this sensitive bioregion--critical to the restoration of the California condor.
“While Tejon claims to have pulled development off the important northern ridges, this pullback is illusory. The fact remains that development will still occur in active, occupied condor critical habitat. The heart of condor country is designated as critical habitat for a reason: the science clearly shows that it is essential to the survival and recovery of the species,” said Adam Keats, urban wildlands program director at the Center. “It cannot and should not be sacrificed.”
More info here: http://www.savetejonranch.org/
This is a monumental success and I am extremely proud of the example that California is sending to the rest of the U.S.
Arnold!