LAND WITHIN CALIFORNIA’S VENTANA WILDERNESS PROTECTED
View of the Protected 160 acres in the Vantana
On February 28, 2007 The Wilderness Land Trust announced that it has purchased the historic
160 acre Horse Pasture property in the northern Ventana Wilderness of the Los Padres National Forest.
Partnership funding was provided by the Big Sur Land Trust.
Adding the Horse Pasture to the Wilderness Area will expand the Ventana Wilderness to 240,184 acres and
guarantees that the popular Horse Pasture Trail will remain open for public enjoyment in perpetuity.
The Horse Pasture was named for the flat meadows once used by wranglers to pasture livestock when stage
coaches serviced the nearby Tassajara Hot Springs. The inholding was identified as a high priority
conservation acquisition because of watershed and recreational features, as well as the potential threat of
development as a wilderness retreat.
The parcel is vegetated with chamise-dominated Chaparral and a Mixed Oak - Coulter Pine forest. Stands of
the endemic Santa Lucia fir are tucked into rocky canyons that flank the meadows. Springs on the property
contribute perennial flow to tributaries serving Tassajara Creek, which provides spawning habitat for the
anadromous steelhead trout that negotiate difficult passage upstream through the Salinas and Arroyo Seco
watershed.
The Trust purchased the Horse Pasture property as part of its ongoing effort to complete California's
wilderness system by working with willing sellers to acquire and transfer over 100,000 acres of remaining
private inholdings to public ownership.
