Conservation Significance of the Tejon Ranch

The Conservation Biology Institute (CBI) has been commissioned by Environment Now and a consortium of environmental groups (The Tejon Working Group) to conduct an assessment of the conservation value of the Tejon Ranch. CBI is partnering on this effort with the South Coast Wildlands Project and the California Wilderness Coalition. The Tejon Ranch is a 270,000-acre property, located in and around the Tehachapi Mountains, that is currently being planned for large-scale residential development in a piecemeal fashion. The Tejon Ranch is located at the confluence of four major biogeographic regions (Sierra Nevada, Great Central Valley, Mojave Desert, and South Western California), the only place in California where four ecoregions converge. As a result, the Tejon Ranch exhibits a high degree of biological diversity, by supporting community elements from each of the respective ecoregions. For example, the Tejon Ranch supports significant areas of oak woodlands, including Valley Oak Woodland, Blue Oak Woodland, Coastal Oak Woodland, Blue Oak-Foothill Pine, and Montane Hardwood [Black Oak]-Conifer Woodland, and grasslands, including both San Joaquin Valley and Mojave Desert community associations, which are under-protected in the region. The Tejon Ranch is relatively intact and roadless, and serves as a critical landscape connection between conserved and roadless areas in the adjacent Sequoia and Los Padres National Forests. The Tejon Ranch region supports 18 rare and endangered species and a large number of other sensitive species.

The preliminary results of our assessment demonstrate that the Tejon Ranch is unique and biologically valuable. We hope that these results will be used to make sound planning decisions for this one-of-a-kind part of California's natural heritage. The full report will be available in June 2003.

For more information, please contact Mike White (email: mdwhite@consbio.org).