June 30, 2007

PRESERVING YESTERDAY
THE HOLLISTER RANCH STORY

Monte Ward,  Parcel 91

            Hollister Ranch is a 14,000 acre private development that is primarily a cattle ranch but has been subdivided into 133 parcels of about 100 acres each with undivided ownership and 3 parcels with ownership held in common. Its more than 800 owners have elected to run it as a free ranging cattle ranch for a variety of reasons but mainly because they want to enjoy a truly remote and natural experience and consider it a valuable and unique lifestyle that they don’t want to disappear from Southern California . The Ranch is at best marginal agricultural land because it is steep, has rather poor soil both for intensive agriculture and for building,  is short of water and access is difficult. There are strict rules on parcel development which severely limit the area and extent of private development and which require owners to pay for safe roads and other amenities to maintain the rural lifestyle. Almost all parcels are under the Williamson Act which mandates maintenance of agricultural operations on participating parcels.

 Private property owners on the Ranch want to protect their investments and are voluntarily restricting development even beyond what is absolutely mandated by the Conditions, Covenants and Restrictions (CC&R’s). It is well known that privately owned property is better cared for than public property or “the commons” ( parks, roads, beaches, trails, etc.). The noted UCSB Biologist, Garrett Hardin, in his influential article of 1967, “The Tragedy of the Commons”  recognized this clearly when he concluded that the greater the population, the greater should be the extent of private property. In a primitive society, where people are widely dispersed, there is little or no need for private property. North American Indians had plenty of land and didn’t need private holdings. Only when population escalated because of European settlers who engaged in industry and agriculture rather than hunting and gathering was it necessary to institute private ownership. Today there are 100 times more people in the continental USA than in pre-colonial times and private property ownership is a must.

What specifically does the Ranch do to preserve itself? There are many things. The Ranch has an active homeowner’ association dedicated to enforcing its bylaws, CC&R’s and rules. The CC&R’s, the Williamson Act and building site difficulties all mandate extremely limited and low density housing. A Design Committee reviews and approves parcel development plans to see that they conform to strict rules protecting the environment. An early step was formation of a Cattle Cooperative with parcel owners as members to organize and manage the cattle operation. Another step was to create a Conservancy Committee (known as the Conservancy) of some owners and charter it to work on keeping the Ranch rural. A small group of Ranch owners formed a tax exempt foundation, the Coastal Ranches Conservancy (CRC) to help fund preservation activities on the Gaviota Coast . The main goal is to keep it as a working cattle ranch since the land had been re-vegetated and repopulated from Indian times due to the introduction of old world plants  such as mustard and annual grasses and grazing animals such as cattle, sheep and pigs. The Ranch has been a reasonably successful self sustaining cattle operation since the middle of the nineteenth century and it is impractical, expensive and counterproductive to revert to the Indian landscape. The Ranch population is little changed from Indian times since scattered modern houses and mainly dirt roads have replaced Chumash villages and foot trails. The Ranch probably produces more food than it did in hunter-gatherer Indian times because of the extensive specialized grazing using most of the land.

The Ranch has unique unspoiled areas and is dedicated to preserving them. It has adopted a managed public access program so that people can see what a natural area looks like. There are many specific things Ranch owners have done to improve the preservation and maintenance of its rural atmosphere. The Cattle Cooperative utilizes modern grazing practices and watershed enhancement to increase the extent of grazing land and allow it to be grazed more evenly. This results in less tinder reducing the seasonal fire hazard and more productive land raises more fodder for more animals to be raised on the Ranch, a win-win situation. The Conservancy and maintenance staff work together to eradicate noxious vegetation from the Ranch. We have had great private success on our own initiative in removing stands of Arundo Donax, a bamboo-like rapidly spreading exotic plant heavily infesting river and creek beds in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties . We have done or sponsored private efforts to reduce or eradicate other species such as Spanish Thistle, Milk Thistle, Yellow Star Thistle,  Wild Artichoke Thistle, Cocklebur and Castor Bean. The Cattle Cooperative, over many years at great effort,  has almost eliminated a large infestation of Wild Artichoke Thistle. The CRC has even financially assisted Gaviota Beach State Park in removing Castor Bean on their property and Ranch maintenance employees and equipment, under park direction, have removed Gaviota Creek vegetation interfering with stream flow. The Conservancy, under its charter, oversees some critical habitat areas along the beach limiting access so that bird and marine life are preserved and can flourish. Programs to protect endangered species such as Snowy Plovers, Raptors and other animals are in place. In summary, the Hollister Ranch and its owners are good stewards of their lands and neighborhood.

Besides on-the-ground efforts, the Ranch has done a lot to become knowledgeable about itself. The Conservancy has sponsored and funded scientific and educational projects concerning the Ranch. It funds educational trips to unique tide pools teeming with beach life for public and private school science classes. It has funded scientific research on flora and fauna of the Ranch and continuing studies of local biological, botanical and geologic resources. Participants include the U. S. Geological Survey, U. S. Minerals Management Service, UC Santa Barbara,  UC Santa Cruz, UCLA,  Santa Barbara Natural History Museum , Santa Barbara City College and others. The Conservancy has published  pamphlets and  books such as “Botanical Resources of the Hollister Ranch”, “Wildlife of the Hollister Ranch”, “Geology of the Hollister Ranch”, “Guide to the Hollister Ranch Beach Preserve”  and others. Ranch owners and employees serve on various boards, committees and activities concerned with our area such as the Community Environmental Council, Channel Keepers, Santa Barbara County Land Trust,  Audubon Society and Santa Barbara Botanical Garden . This is part of a managed public access program sponsored by the Conservancy and operated by owner volunteers. Under this program, we encourage interest groups to visit and appreciate our unique unspoiled areas but we try to limit  access, even our own,  to what the environment will accept without degradation. National Parks and National Seashores, both under U. S. National Park Service control, do not restrict public access to protect their areas as we do, so those areas are often overused and degraded compared to ours.

Alexis de Toqueville in his famous book, “Democracy in America ”, noted that Americans had a sense of civic duty lacking among Europeans of the time (1831). He attributed this to the fact that there was no aristocracy nor peasantry in America while Europe had a tradition of an elite aristocracy that was accustomed to making grand decisions for the peasantry under their jurisdiction. This meant that members of our classless society had to take responsibility for themselves and make their own decisions about their affairs without the “help” of the elite.

The Hollister Ranch is a classless society of owners who want to decide things for themselves about their local affairs and, coupled with evidence that things privately owned are better cared for than things held in common or not owned at all,  is following a policy that will benefit everyone and preserve what is valuable and unique about our area. Garrettt Hardin was right. The greater the population, the greater the need for private property and the better the world will be managed. Long live the Hollister Ranch as it operates today.