Based in Monterey, CA, The Conservancy for the Range of the Condor is a land trust whose mission is to acquire critical land through purchase or gift, and to permanently protect it through recorded conservation easements. Preferred properties are mostly undeveloped parcels situated adjacent to or near other large tracts of open space.
Upon acquiring a parcel of critical land, the land trust will hold title and manage it, or will turn it over to another non-profit, or to a government agency such as a park district, depending on what would provide the best outcome for the property and for its denizens. Currently a volunteer run organization, the Range of the Condor is able to operate with minimal administrative costs and overhead, and can collaborate with higher profile land trusts, conservation organization, public agencies, and other nonprofits such as Indigenous Tribes to promote and facilitate responsible and respectful land stewardship.
The organization is most interested in preserving and expanding areas neighboring the Ventana Wilderness and Los Padres National Forest and along the Condor Trail, which extends from Lake Piru in the southern portion of Los Padres to the northern Big Sur area of the Forest at Botcher’s Gap, near Pico Blanco, a peak revered by local Native American tribes whose watershed forms the Little Sur River, habitat for endangered steeled trout and potentially a wild and scenic river. Both of these gorgeous, unique, treasures remain in private ownership and are unprotected.
A long range vision is to have the Condor Trail serve as the central feature of a National Heritage Area, a federal designation that can provide potential benefits to the area, its inhabitants and visitors, and its sensitive habitat as explained in the attached you tube video.