A new report released by several nonprofits in Santa Barbara County aims to help establish conservation, biodiversity, and economic guidelines for future growth and development. Its authors say that the accompanying data “atlas” should help facilitate collaboration between wide-ranging groups and parties.
“Often times people come to the negotiating table with their opinions on things but they aren’t reliant on the same set of facts and information, then they end up talking past each other because it becomes a battle of debate,” said John Gallo, a senior scientist with the Conservation Biology Institute (CBI).
CBI is an organization that provides scientific expertise to support the conservation and recovery of biological diversity in its natural state through applied research, education, planning, and community service. The organization utilizes Geographic Information System mapping technology and remote sensing data to conduct assessments and planning in support of conservation projects globally.
Gallo told the Sun that the report was largely information gathered from public databases available online, along with local sources, like Santa Barbara County. He said the Santa Barbara County Conservation Blueprint is a product of two years of design, research, data collection, interviews, focus groups, and public input meetings. The atlas, which Gallo described as a “data encyclopedia,” was developed by the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County, the Santa Barbara Foundation LEAF (Landscape, Ecosystems, Agriculture, and Food Systems) Initiative, and the Cachuma Resource Conservation District.
Project backers include the California Coastal Conservancy, along with the Hollis Norris Endowed, Jack and Judy Stapelmann, and the Walter J. and Holly O. Thomson funds.
“We just feel that by at least providing the science and the facts that people that truly do want to have the best solutions for communities can then rely on that and build on it,” Gallo said.
An executive summary of the conservation blueprint said it and the accompanying online atlas—with dozens of maps detailing land use, climatological factors, resources like water, and even plant and animal distribution—was a “first step toward a common understanding of Santa Barbara County’s current environmental conditions, the impacts of human interaction with the land, and the conscious tradeoffs required to create a landscape of opportunity for generations to come.”
Speaking in front of a small room of stakeholders and partners on March 14 in Santa Maria, Santa Barbara Foundation President and CEO Ron Gallo (no relation to John Gallo) described the effort as one of community engagement and finding common values.
“It’s about intelligently interacting with habitat, and that’s what we are really talking about today,” he said.
The extensive report focuses on major land conservation themes—water, flora, and fauna; agriculture and ranchlands; and how they interact with their neighboring communities. Climate change impacts are featured throughout the report, along with community values and stories of resilience in the face of resource challenges and scarcity. The online Atlas houses nearly 300 science-based datasets that can be viewed as maps, analyzed, and shared to spread an understanding of land use and natural resources in the county, the Land Trust stated.
“The Blueprint is the first impartial, complete, up-to-date source of data that has been fully vetted and verified and made available to everyone, not just a single interest group,” said Pamela Doiron, a rancher from The Spanish Ranch in Cuyama Valley and a member of the Blueprint Steering Committee. “From urban areas to watersheds, public lands, rangelands, and agriculture, the blueprint describes, in easy to understand terms, the resources of Santa Barbara County—fully descriptive and not prescriptive.”
Doiron added that she hoped when future county decisions are made that affect “all of us,” that “we will make sound, informed evaluations based on this common information.”
The speakers on March 14, that the blueprint is meant to be a catalyst for more informed conversations. It is a written report with an online mapping tool that comes with publicly available data about resources and land uses in the county. It is not a government led process, nor is it a regulatory effort. The plan is not mandatory, nor is it meant to be taken as an advocacy process. Most importantly, they stressed, the information is available to everyone.
“The dream scenario is that people use it and find use of it and it really helps further the difficult dialogue that needs to happen because there’s no easy solution to the wicked problems we face in our society or our region,” CBI’s John Gallo told the Sun. He pointed to global population growth reflected at the county level, and said that the increased consumption of resources were and would continue to place pressure on the global economy.
“We are going to have to adapt and be resilient to all sorts of changes,” he added. “We want to preserve our open space, our natural landscapes, our ag lands, but we also want to give people a place to live. You can’t just conserve all the land and then make all the property values go through the roof. We are going to need to have more development, but where is that new development going to go? What’s it going to look like?”
Randy Sharer, of Sharer Brothers Farms, is a member of the blueprint’s steering committee. As a representative of the farming community, Sharer said his duty was to make sure that the report did not become the framework for crippling regulations that could potentially damage the ag industry.
“I joined on to keep them from screwing it up,” he told the Sun. “[The ag community] views ourselves as having a target because we manufacture without walls. We’re out in the open.”
Sharer said one of the first things he tried to get the committee to understand was that the concept of “open space” was often conflated with a more idyllic interpretation. “Just because it’s outside doesn’t mean it’s open space,” he added, noting that often urban planners failed to take into account that open fields set aside for farm land weren’t always the best place to target for development. He said he hoped the blueprint would help bridge that miscommunication gap.
“It’s gonna be a good tool and it’s going to be one that can be built on as a dynamic use implement,” Sharer explained. “Maybe it will show some urban planners to build in [their own city limits] before sprawling out.”
Staff Writer Spencer Cole can be reached at scole@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 22-29, 2018.
