Big Sur Land Trust’s mission is to inspire love of land across generations, conservation of our unique Monterey County landscapes, and access to outdoor experiences for all.
Big Sur Land Trust is in the process of creating a protected wildlife corridor in the Sierra de Salinas mountain range. Our latest acquisition project, Basin Ranch, is a 5,105-acre property located at the southern end of Carmel Valley Road near Arroyo Seco.
This incredible property provides essential wildlife connectivity, allowing animals to safely move and forage over great distances. Cameras there have captured badgers, golden eagles, and a radio-collared mountain lion thought to have traveled from a Fort Hunter Liggett study site. The property is dotted with majestic oak woodlands, carpeted with native grasses, and fed by perennial water sources. Opportunities to protect lands like these are rare, and we look forward to opening the property through managed public access.
Once acquired, Basin Ranch’s extraordinary conservation and cultural values will be cared for in partnership with the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County.
Acquisition of Basin Ranch by BSLT would expand an important wildlife corridor in the inner coast range that stretches across multiple conserved properties in the Sierra de Salinas from Los Padres National Forest and BSLT’s Arroyo Seco Ranch to protected coastal habitat along Monterey Bay. The property is characterized by oak woodlands, annual grassland, mixed chaparral, coastal scrub, and freshwater ponds. These habitats provide important habitat for several species of greatest conservation need including mountain lion (Puma concolor), American badger (Taxidea taxus), southwestern pond turtle (Actinemys pallida), Blainville’s horned lizard (Phrynosoma blainvillii), and golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos). The ranch also provides important foraging habitat for the endangered California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) between their Big Sur Coast and Pinnacles National Park populations. In addition, the ranch is culturally important since it is bisected by historic and Native American travel routes between adjacent Paraiso Hot Springs, Arroyo Seco, and the Salinas Valley.
- California Department of Fish and Wildlife Coming soon
