Santa Lucia Conservancy

Conserving Biodiversity

The Santa Lucia Preserve is situated within one of the world’s great ‘biodiversity hotspots,’ globally recognized as a place of exceptional ecological value. At the intersection of coastal and inland climate gradients, The Preserve is a mosaic of habitats: maritime chaparral and coastal scrub, oak woodlands and coast redwood forests, [...]

Reducing Wildfire Risk

Our vision for fire and fuels management on The Preserve is one that harmoniously balances the protection of life, property, and biodiversity with long-term ecosystem resilience. Our proactive wildfire resilience strategy includes shaded fuel breaks, prescribed burns, conservation grazing, invasive plant removal, a Preserve-wide fuel management plan, and lot-specific fuel [...]

Environmental Education

With a place-based, experiential learning approach, our free Environmental Education Program connects students with nature and promotes ecological literacy, environmental stewardship, and social-emotional learning with field trips that integrate science, natural history, and art. Age-appropriate classes are consistent with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and take an ecosystem-level approach to understanding subjects such [...]

Fostering Land Stewardship

The Santa Lucia Preserve was founded upon a bold and unique private land conservation model. Over 90% of the 20,000-acre Santa Lucia Preserve is permanently protected and managed by the Conservancy to maintain ecological values. The remaining 10% is zoned for residential development, supporting a vibrant community of people who [...]

Who is the Conservancy?

The Santa Lucia Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit land trust incorporated in 1995 to conserve the ecological integrity of the protected lands within the Santa Lucia Preserve in Carmel, California. We are dedicated to advancing the art and science of conservation-compatible development through adaptive land management, conservation easement stewardship, ecological research and environmental education programs. Learn more here.

What is The Preserve?

The Santa Lucia Preserve is a private residential community where people and nature thrive together. Extraordinary thought and planning went into the design of this unique community, with the goal of sustainably integrating the human and natural communities for the benefit of both. Learn more.

Recent Blog Posts

Seen from below, a monarch butterfly floats over wild grasses.

Winged Restoration Project to expand monarch habitat

by Suzanne GillCommunications and Outreach Coordinator While the monarch butterfly is among the most beloved wildlife species in the U.S., populations of both the Eastern and Western monarch have declined precipitously since the late 1990s. By 2019, the Western monarch population was estimated to have plummeted to just two percent of the total recorded 22 years earlier, in 1997. The […]

Mule Deer rutting season

October 24, 2023 by Emma Levy, Conservation Ecologist Mule deer find a very welcoming environment on the Santa Lucia Preserve. Discriminating foragers, they seek the most nutritious parts of a variety of plants (including berries and acorns), rather than large quantities of low-quality grasses and leaves. The Preserve’s large variety of vegetation in different habitat areas, combined with its limited human […]

Survey informs update of Strategic Plan

September 26, 2023 Beautiful surroundings, a natural setting, community, and sustainability ranked as the most prized values of life on the Preserve, according to a survey conducted this summer. Those surveyed ranked wildfire mitigation and management as their highest environmental concern (71.6% identified this as important or extremely important), and a significant number expressed strong interest in participating in land […]