Dave Alley
CARRIZO PLAIN NATIONAL MONUMENT, Calif. (KEYT) – A gathering was held Friday morning to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Carrizo Plain National Monument designation.
In January 2001 during his final days in office, President Bill Clinton officially proclaimed the vast wilderness in remote Eastern San Luis Obispo County as a national monument, helping ensure the site remains as nearly untouched as it has for thousands of years prior.
“This is one of the truly last great places in California,” said Scott Butterfield, The Nature Conservancy Land Program Lead Scientist. “When the Nature Conservancy and partners, including the Bureau of Land Management and California Department of Fish and Wildlife came up with a plan to protect, connect, restore and steward this landscape for 40 years ago, I don’t think anybody could have thought that we’d be this successful.”
Spanning 250,000 acres, the Carrizo Plain is an important ecological and historical site that is managed jointly by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), California Department of Fish and Wildlife and The Land Conservancy.
Sometimes referred to as “California’s Serengeti,” the Carrizo Plain is California’s largest native grassland and is home to the highest concentration of threatened and endangered species in the state.
“This area here is significant because it’s one of the last remnants, of the ecosystem that that was here thousands of years ago,” said Gabe Garcia, BLM Central California District Land Manager. “Many of these these areas have been converted to farmland. Many of them are now big cities, so this is the last remnant and kind of a conduit to the past.”
Garcia, who grew up only about 40 miles away from the National Monument in Buttonwillow, further explained why the National Monument designation has been so important to the area.
“There’s just more significance put on these places to protect them and conserve them for the ways that they’ve been used historically, out here,” said Garcia. “It’s a historically, an area that was used, in recent times, as a ranching area, so some of that is still prevalent, but before then, it was a very culturally significant place for our Native American, community. It’s a place where multiple tribes would meet. They would trade and there’s a lot of things that would happen here from a religious perspective for those groups and so we continue those traditions here on the monument, working through our Native American Advisory Council. There’s a number of research projects that go on with local, universities, who come out and do population research. We do research from a government perspective as well, to make sure that we’re doing what we can to preserve the ecosystems here so that these, animals that are listed as endangered species and may one day may be delisted.”
Butterfield, who has worked in the Carrizo Plain for more than 20 years, pointed out, as many did on Friday during the celebration held at the Guy L. Goodwin Education Center, the success of the ongoing conservation has been through a productive group effort that includes federal, state, local, private and tribal entities.
“The National Monument status allowed us to really focus our efforts in a collaborative way on how do we steward this landscape, how do we restore this landscape, how do we put in place the practices across this landscape that will lead to these species not only being able to survive and prosper here, but hopefully a vision in the future that these species could be doing well enough that they can go to other habitat, reclaim other habitat and become recovered species,” said Butterfield. “It’s a big deal that the designation was not only a representation of how important this place is, and how unique this place is, but it recognizes the importance of making sure we protect this place, manage this place and restore this place.”
Over the past 25 years, the Carrizo Plain National Monument has developed into a popular destination, attracting, according to Garcia, more than 2 million visitors.
“A lot of different things that pull visitors out to the to the Carrizo Plain,” said Garcia. “During the spring, we typically have a wildflower bloom. This year, the bloom was a little bit earlier in the season, compared to to most years, but typically during those that wildflower months, we’ll get 100,000 people out. We get lots of folks that come from all over the world.”
For those who do make the trek out to the Carrizo Plain, Garcia also offered some advice when traveling to a place where the closet gas station or store is about one hour away.
“Please plan ahead,” said Garcia. “Plan for a long day. There’s lots of things to see out here. There are no gas stations and no places to get food or water. Make sure you’re bringing all you need. Make sure you fill up and make sure if you use an electric vehicle, make sure you charge before you come out, and just really enjoy. Enjoy the day. Enjoy the solitude. There’s many days out here during the off-season you’ll go a whole day without seeing another car out here or another person, so it’s a place where you can come out and have solitude. We do have two campgrounds. It’s a first come, first serve basis, and if you come out and enjoy that, the nights are just beautiful here on a clear night.”
With the 25th anniversary celebration now finished, Garcia, along with the rest of the Carrizo Plain partners are now looking ahead at the next 25 years and beyond.
“We really set a really good foundation with our partnerships,” said Garcia. “We’re going to work collaboratively on projects moving forward. We’re always looking at ways to improve things out here and I think what we’re going to focus on is trying to improve visitor experience for the people that do come out. We’ve expanded our our visitor center over the last year here. We’ve it’s actually doubled in size and so that was a great addition to the national monument.”
For more information on the Carrizo Plain National Monument, click here to visit the Carrizo Plain webpage at the official BLM website.
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