Anyone reading about the Tejon
Ranch — California’s largest contiguous private property —
has probably heard about the three controversial development
projects: Tejon Industrial Park, the Tejon Mountain Village and the
Centennial Planned Community.
But have you heard about
the Tejon Golf and Hunting Resort, or maybe the Whitewolf Village
and Shopping Center? People haven’t heard about them because
they’re not going to be built, and thanks to a sweeping
conservation agreement between several environmental groups and the
Tejon Ranch Co., they never will be.
At stake are
hundreds of thousands of acres in Kern and Los Angeles counties,
filled with oaks, white fir, Joshua trees and grasslands — all of
it native habitat for the California condor and many other rare
species.
For a time, our best hope to save this land was
to do what we conservationists always do: Battle it out in the
courts and in the media, knowing full well that while we might win
some battles, we would also lose others. However, even if we were
successful in tying up the developments in court, the ranch could
simply have responded by selling off its nearly 1,000 legal
parcels. The resulting checkerboard landscape of development and
open space would do little to help birds, wildlife and habitat.
Fortunately, all parties were willing to sit down and
reason out a solution that made more sense for the future of this
remarkable landscape.
The agreement, negotiated by
Audubon California, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense
Council, the Endangered Habitats League and the Planning and
Conservation League, secures permanent protection of 375 square
miles — eight times the size of San Francisco and about 90 percent
of the Tejon Ranch. The settlement also provides funding for an
independent science-driven conservancy to restore the land and
ensure public access. Thirty-seven miles of the Pacific Crest Trail
will be re-routed through the property, and the creation of a major
state park will allow the public to enjoy this incredible place.
In exchange, we have agreed not to oppose three
developments on the remaining 10 percent of the ranch. These
developments — none of which have been approved yet by regulatory
agencies — will undergo full public review and be subject to all
environmental protection laws.
Of course, no development
at all would have been preferable. But one has only to look around
Kern and Los Angeles counties and see what is happening on
privately held land to understand that this outcome is just wishful
thinking. To commit ourselves to years of fighting for a pipe dream
would have been irresponsible. It would have meant gambling with
California’s most biologically diverse property, particularly
in light of the opportunity this agreement presents right now.
Since the agreement was announced, concerns have been
raised about whether this agreement protects the California condor.
Ever since I saw my first California condor, just west of the Tejon
Ranch in August 1983, I have understood the magic of this bird.
Speaking on behalf of Audubon, an organization that has been out
front since the 1930s in the battle to save the condor, I can say
that this endangered species was our foremost concern.
We reviewed condor flight data and consulted with eminent condor
scientists, including Pete Bloom, Lloyd Kiff and Bob Risebrough.
Bloom is a hero in the fight to save the condor, and the stories of
him lying in holes to catch and protect the last wild condors in
the ‘80s are still told and re-told with a sense of awe.
Without people like him, there likely would be no condors left.
Bloom, Kiff and Risebrough had total freedom to analyze
the plans and agree or disagree, and to do so publicly. They made a
number of strong recommendations, and each was incorporated into
the plan. The agreement provides for the protection of the
overwhelming majority of the ranch’s vast backcountry condor
habitat and also gives long-term funding for condor conservation.
We recognize that scientists often disagree. Nothing in
our agreement precludes such critics or any other members of the
public from participating in the review process conducted by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or any of the many other review
processes related to the area’s developments. Those review
processes will have the ultimate say as to whether the proposal
meets the condor’s needs.
If the Fish and Wildlife
Service believes that additional steps are warranted, it will
require them, and in so doing will build on the clear and certain
conservation outcomes achieved by the Tejon Ranch Agreement.
Graham Chisholm is a contributor to Writers on
the Range, a service of High Country News
(hcn.org). He is director of conservation for Audubon
California and lives in Berkeley,
California.
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