Members of staff from the Santa Lucia Conservancy participated in the 2018 Tassajara Fire Training. November 3, 2021 By Alix Soliman, Communications & Outreach Coordinator On November 7, the Santa Lucia Conservancy and Central Coast Prescribed Burn Association (CCPBA) plan to conduct a prescribed burn on The Santa Lucia Preserve, just off of Rancho San Carlos Road in Carmel Valley. [...]
Comparing blue oak leaves (right hand) to black oak leaves (left hand). Photo by Alix Soliman. October 26, 2021 By Jackson Brooke, Restoration Manager Some of the most dramatic trees on The Preserve are old oaks, which are found sprinkled on grassy hillsides to create brilliant savannas and clustered together in woodlands, providing habitat for many species. Oak trees are [...]
Dr. Christy Wyckoff takes pond surveys and explains the day's catch to a group of onlookers. Photo by Susan Palmer. October 12, 2021 By Dr. Christy Wyckoff, Deputy Director On November 3rd, I will be leaving the Santa Lucia Conservancy to apply all I’ve learned over the last seven and a half years to restore my own plot of land [...]
Teri G. submitted this black bear photo to the Conservancy on behalf of Bruce Dormody. It was spotted at neighboring San Clemente Rancho. There was another sighting along Rancho San Carlos Road. While we're having a much quieter bear season compared to last year (when bears were getting into trash cans and gardens), it is important to be mindful that [...]
Restoring grasslands and oak savannas across The Santa Lucia Preserve is a crucial component of the Conservancy's wildfire and climate change resilience efforts. Photo by Bill Guion. September 15, 2021 By Jamison Watts, Executive Director The Santa Lucia Conservancy remains steadfast in its mission to protect and steward the unique natural and aesthetic resources of the Santa Lucia Preserve while [...]
Photo by Adam White. Ramona Bohlander sets up a wildlife camera on her property to help the Conservancy track the movements of our wild neighbors. August 6, 2021 By Izaac Tompkins, Stewardship Associate Each of the 296 residential lots on the Santa Lucia Preserve has two zones, a Homeland and an Openland. While the Homelands are basically building envelopes zoned [...]
A happy IPM customer holding a California mouse after adopting non-toxic rodent control. Photo by Rodrigo Sierra Corona July 27, 2021 By Sabine Cudney, Wildlife Technician Summary Rodenticides, poison baits used to kill rodents, threaten to upend natural predator-prey cycles by poisoning entire food-chains. Their negative impacts on wildlife have been widely documented in California, where studies have found rodenticide [...]
On a mild summer day in July 2016, several of my colleagues at the Santa Lucia Conservancy and I stood knee-deep in a lovely coastal grassland, looking west across towering redwoods dwarfed by a dense column of smoke rising thousands of feet into the air. The wind was calm, and although the smoke had not yet shrouded the sun, a [...]