Carrizo Ranch

Judith Friend, owner of the Carrizo Ranch, donated multiple conservation easements of over 27,000 acres of cattle ranch located approximately 36 miles due east of San Luis Obispo, along the southern foothills of the Carrizo Plain. The ranch sits within the juncture between the La Panza Range trending northwest and the Caliente Range which trends southeast in San Luis Obispo County, California. By conserving the ranch, Judith is maintaining a unified ecological landscape, preserving the existing native communities within the ranch and serving to enhance the function of these other large natural areas by helping to sustain a vital east/west transit corridor for the movement of native plants and animals. Carrizo Ranch supports at least four basic vegetative communities including; grassland, woodland, scrub, and wetland. These communities host a diverse selection of plants and animals, some of which are endemic to central California, such as the blunt-nosed leopard lizard, giant kangaroo rat, and San Joaquin kit fox.