Gaviota Coast

There has been some movement in Hollister Ranch real estate lately. Most dramatically is the several million-dollar price adjustment for the Hollister Ranch Realty listing of James Cameron’s Parcel 89. The 50% interest in Parcel 109 has gone into escrow with a sale pending. Hollister Ranch Realty has put the 1/12 interest in Parcel 2 into escrow. Jesse Wooten closed escrow on the 1/12 interest on Parcel 7. Please remember  that the seller of the main house building rights interest on Parcel 48 will consider seller financing. Please call to discuss that possibility.

One of the unique experiences one enjoys here at the Ranch is the dynamics of a weather front rounding Point Conception and moving down the Santa Barbara Channel. Last week the Ranch was hit by another of those events. We didn’t get the voluminous amounts of rain as other areas in Southern California. However, the winds were really strong.

Now, it is calm and clear with the range grass given a sudden boost. The cattle couldn’t be happier. The cows, and their newborn calves, are feasting on the tender green shoots. It looks like another exceptional year for the Hollister Ranch (cattle) Cooperative.

The rains have been good to the wildlife as well. The herbivores have plenty to eat and provide nourishment to their new offspring. The beaches, creeks and ponds are alive with myriad bird species and endangered pond turtles. Red-Tail Hawks hover motionless waiting for an unaware rodent to break into the open and become a mid-day snack.

All of this activity takes place within the lush winter environment of the more than 14,000-acres of open space wildlife habitat. These thousands of acres of landscape, coupled with the 8.5-mile Hollister Ranch Shoreline Preserve, are the result of over 50 years of protecting, preserving and enhancing the natural environment at the Ranch. This sort of land protection is what the Dangermond Preserve endeavors to do and what others are trying to do elsewhere along the Gaviota Coast with partial success.

The property owners along the Gaviota Coast are those who have made the effort to maintain the natural environment. Groups such as the Coastal Ranches Conservancy and Gaviota Coast Conservancy have done their best to hold on. Unfortunately, various government agencies have stained this last, mostly unmolested, stretch of coastline with the county dump, several huge oil facilities and three deteriorating state parks. The Coastal Commission is spending millions of taxpayer dollars to degrade the Hollister Ranch coastline. The owners have contributed too much time and spent too much in resources to allow their irreverence.