Biodiversityof the BY CHRISTY FISCHER
Santa Lucia Preserve
D The Santa Lucia Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit land trust incorporated in 1995 to conserve the ecological health and integrity of The Preserve. Science-based and forward-thinking, the Conservancy plays an essential role in ensuring The Preserve attains its full potential: a place of enduring wild beauty and resilient biodiversity, actively cared for and protected by a thriving community of people who treasure it.
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santa lucia preserve.com
eep, cold and nutrient rich, the waters of the world’s largest ocean well up along the shores of this land. Driven by wild offshore winds and powerful currents, this ‘upwelling’ sets the stage for an amazingly gentle climate: a slow waltz of seasons in which temperature extremes are muted and plants and animals flourish year-round. Cooling fog in the evenings and sea-run steelhead in the glittering streams are subtle reminders of the bond between land and sea. n The Santa Lucia Range rises above the rocky coast in a series of sweeping terraces, each graced by a mosaic of natural communities: coastal prairies and grasslands, maritime chaparral and coastal scrub, rolling oak savanna and woodland, creeks and wetlands, stately redwood and pine forests. The sounds of birdsong and the afternoon sea-breeze fill the air, inviting the listener to slow down, to breathe in the majesty, history, and enduring wildness of this land. n There is, quite simply, no place on Earth like California’s Central Coast. Unique combinations of geology and a rare ‘Mediterranean’ climate sustain a rich tapestry of life. Many plants and animals here are found nowhere else, making this one of the most biologically diverse regions in the world.
