The Magic of the Mesa: A Conservation Story of Cattle and Coyote Brush

The Carmel Valley holds a special place in my heart. With family ties in the Monterey Peninsula, I visited the area frequently as a child and for years heard whispers of the magic on The Santa Lucia Preserve. In February 2020, I joined the Conservancy’s second annual seasonal field crew and at last had the privilege to visit The Preserve. [...]

Farewell Christy Fischer

A reflection on 9 years of accomplishments with the Santa Lucia Conservancy Spring is a time of metamorphosis, and this year change is also afoot at the Santa Lucia Conservancy.  After a 'transformational' 9 years as the Conservancy's Executive Director,  Christy Fischer has accepted an exciting new position with a long-time Preserve partner, the Trust for Public Land, to lead [...]

Flying Solo at the Santa Lucia Conservancy

This blog was originally posted to Stanford University's Bill Lane Center for the American West "Out West Student Blog".  On Tuesday, July 9th, I set out to capture some photographs at Hall’s Ridge for my ongoing project for the Santa Lucia Conservancy. My project at the Conservancy up to that point had consisted of selecting historical photographs of the Santa Lucia [...]

Nature Rocks! How Greer Hoffmann Combines Computer Science and Nature

When I was in fourth grade, I was completely obsessed with rocks. At nine years old I could name all of earth’s geologic eras. I spent hours upon hours searching for rocks within each classification of the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. While most other children asked for Disney themed birthday parties, I begged for a rock-themed birthday. I even [...]

Boosting Bovine Breadth

The Preserve’s newest residents have finally arrived. Allow us to introduce the Conservancy cattle currently scattered throughout The Preserve: The Big Herd: The Original Grazers (OG) - 35 head The OG make up the foundation of the Conservancy’s Cattle Grazing Program. This week, these bovine babes are moving to San Francisquito Flats. They have been enjoying a summer along Rancho [...]

Brand New Website

The Santa Lucia Conservancy team has been working hard to rebuild our website. We hope this new and improved interface delights and inspires you. There are so many exciting things happening on the Santa Lucia Preserve! Our work is dynamic, involves multi-stakeholder engagement and cutting edge science! This blog and this website are meant to keep the community up to […]