History of the Gaviota Coast Conservancy
The Gaviota Coast Conservancy (GCC) is a private, non-profit
organization that promotes the permanent protection of the
Gaviota Coast's unique natural, scenic, agricultural, recreational,
and cultural resources. Working through partnerships with other
land conservation organizations, local landowners, resource
agencies, and government entities, the GCC is promoting long-term
strategies to protect the Gaviota Coast from the rapid urban
expansion that threatens this region.
The current effort to conserve the resources of the Gaviota
Coast was begun in 1991 by Bob Keats. Bob requested and received
support from the National Board of Directors of the Surfrider
Foundation for the formation of the Santa Barbara chapter of
Surfrider Foundation. Under Bob’s leadership, the Santa Barbara
chapter created a task force to oppose the Hyatt hotel project
at Haskell’s beach and to prevent the urbanization of the Gaviota
Coast. At Surfrider, Bob established a task force to begin
the campaign to establish a national seashore on the coast.
The Conservancy grew out of a local, grass-roots movement
to protect the Gaviota Coast from urban sprawl. The impetus
for getting started was a proposal brought to the Environmental
Alliance by the Santa Barbara Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.
That initiative was followed up with the Coastal Conference ’94,
spearheaded by Lee Moldaver of the Santa Barbara Chapter of
the Audubon Society with the participation and support of members
of the Environmental Alliance. In response to the Coastal Conference,
an ad hoc group of citizens began meeting as the Gaviota Coast
Interim Strategy Group, which eventually incorporated as the
Gaviota Coast Conservancy in July of 1996.
Since its inception, the GCC has spearheaded
the effort to bring the various and diverse interests of the
coast together to form a coastal preservation strategy. We
have worked with numerous partners such as the Sierra Club,
the Audubon Society, the Environmental Defense Center, the
National Parks and Conservation Association, the County of
Santa Barbara, the City of Santa Barbara, The Trust for Public
Land, the State Coastal Conservancy, the Land Trust for Santa
Barbara County, seeking to help stakeholders develop effective
strategies for preserving agricultural land and open space.
We actively supported the feasibility study by the National
Park Service (NPS) to determine if the Gaviota Coast was suitable
and feasible for inclusion in the National Park System. The
NPS determined that the natural and cultural resources of the
coast are nationally significant and suitable for inclusion
in the National Park System, but that it is not feasible to
add the area to the National Park System. We have organized
several field trips on the coast for policy makers and conservation
organizations so that they might better understand our coastal
issues. We have been successful in keeping conservation issues
in the forefront of the public’s mind through our public outreach
and partnerships with organizations such as the Sierra Club.
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