Looking Back: How the Preserve Evolved
Cambria has a mild climate and lots of resources from the ocean and land, making it a great place for people to live for more than 9,000 years. The Salinan and Northern Chumash Tribes, who are still here today, have ancestors who lived in this area.
When the Spanish came, they brought farming and mining, which caused many people to move and changed local cultures. Later, the land became part of Rancho Santa Rosa, a Mexican land grant. The land was divided into smaller parts, and one of them became the Fiscalini Town Ranch. The Fiscalini family owned the Ranch for almost 100 years, raising dairy cows and then beef cattle. In 1979, it was sold, and different plans were made for development. But in 2000, the land was saved forever by a mix of public and private funding. Now, the Cambria Community Services District (the property owner) and the Friends of the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve (who protect it) work together to take care of the land.
Since 2000, the Friends of the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve (FFRP) has worked hard to make the Ranch better. Volunteers, often working with the Cambria Community Services District, turned the land from poor rangeland into a beautiful place. Areas that used to have weeds are now full of native plants, providing homes for rare species like the compact cobweb thistle and the monarch butterfly. Volunteers have built more than eight miles of trails, planted hundreds of Monterey pine trees to grow the forest, and added benches and a new boardwalk, along with many other projects. From the forests of pine and oak to the cliffs and ocean, the Ranch is a wonderful place where everyone, young and old, can explore nature.
governing documents
FRP Conservation easement agreement with ccsd, 2003
exhibit a: legal description of property
exhibit d: public access & resources management plan
exhibit e: permitted uses & activities
exhibit f: prohibited uses & activities
FISCALINI RANCH PRESERVE MASTER ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT, 2009