Article taken from the Santa Barbara News Press 
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S.M.-Simi Valley coast hub for native species

Goleta group's study dubs area Conception Coast

By MELINDA BURNS
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

09/12/05

	Rugged Point Conception is included in the territory in the study, which attempts to map the connections between wild areas. NEW-PRESS FILE PHOTO

The Conception Coast -- a new name for the region from Santa Maria to Simi Valley -- is a unique "biological hotspot" in North America for its mix of climates, landscapes, plants and animals, a recent study said.

The study by the Conception Coast Project, a Goleta-based nonprofit group, focuses on the "in-between" ecological zone that is a combination of Southern California and the Central Coast. Extending from the Santa Maria River in Santa Barbara County south to the Santa Monica Mountains, this region of mountains and valleys, grasslands and wetlands, seashores and chaparral harbors 1,400 native species, 140 of which are found nowhere else.

"This area is kind of a gem," said James Studarus, operations director for the Conception Coast Project. "We do still have large wild areas that are quite beautiful. They give us clean air and clean water. But it's kind of a Catch-22. It means more and more people want to come here."

The Conception Coast study goes well beyond the 2003 National Park Service study of the Gaviota coast, which found that the area from Coal Oil Point to Point Sal was worth including in the national park system. Because of landowner opposition and a lack of funding, no action was taken on a park designation. Today, 18 projects for 135 homes are under review west of Goleta's urban boundary.

The Conception Coast Project staff will make a presentation on its study at 6:30 p.m. today at the Faulkner Gallery in Santa Barbara's downtown library. The study will be available today at www.conceptioncoast.org. It is one of many efforts under way nationwide to map the connections between wild areas. Elsewhere in California, similar research has been done at Big Sur and in the Sierra Nevada, and a study is under way of wildland connectivity from Santa Monica to San Diego.

Property-rights groups have attacked these efforts as steps toward the "taking" of private land.

"They're the death of agriculture," said Andy Caldwell, executive director of the Coalition for Labor, Agriculture and Business in Santa Barbara County. "They use the Endangered Species Act to try to lock up land use in their particular region. Anything that hinders the use of the land by wild animals, they want to do away with it. They'd reintroduce wolves if they were here originally.

"This is an attempted land takeover by the people that right now just try to shaft individual development projects, one by one."

But Mr. Studarus said the Conception Coast Project has been careful not to take sides on any development proposals.

He said the project staff does not maintain that it is necessary to establish reserves or designate land as wilderness to protect wildlife corridors. Property owners could voluntarily manage their land in "stewardship zones" by taking down fences, using organic farming methods or selling their development rights to a land trust, Mr. Studarus said.

"We're trying to work together with willing landowners who want to protect their soil and keep their land rural for their children and grandchildren," he said. "We have stayed completely out of the fray. When we start battling, the only ones who are winning, really, are the lawyers."

The Conception Coast study shows that urbanized land in Santa Barbara County increased by more than 4,500 acres from 1990 to 2002. During the same period, cultivated land in the county grew by 8,300 acres as pastures and their oak woodlands were converted to irrigated croplands.

Titled a "Regional Conservation Guide," the study combines satellite images with biological databases to provide 25 color maps giving a birds-eye view of the area from Guadalupe to Thousand Oaks. The maps show the dispersal of cities, farmland, grazing land, oil leases, national forests and threatened species.

The maps also show the location of "wildland linkages," natural corridors large enough for a mountain lion to roam in. And, based on the projections for urban sprawl, oil development and conversion of grazing land, the maps show which of these places are most threatened.

The study highlights five "key conservation priorities" for the region: the Gaviota coast; Vandenberg Air Force Base; the San Rafael Mountains near Figueroa Mountain; the Caliente Range along the north side of the Cuyama Valley; and the Santa Susanna Mountains north of Simi Valley, including the Conejo Grade on Highway 101.

"A lot of attention is given to the Gaviota coast because it is very visually appealing," Mr. Studarus said. "But there are other areas that are biologically important and are possibly going to be converted into urban land."