Ranch the size of San Francisco preserved forever in eastern SLO County

A dusty breeze swept over the hillsides of the Camatta Ranch, causing golden grasses to ripple like waves as far as the eye could see.

The San Luis Obispo County ranch is home to a diversity of critters, from red-tailed hawks to migrating mountain lions. The hills also serve as an excellent runway for cardboard sleds, according to Emilee Morrison, who grew up on the ranch.

Morrison spent much of her childhood outdoors, herding cattle with her family and strumming guitar under her favorite oak tree.

“It was every kid’s dream,” she said.

Since 1978, the Morrison family has grazed cattle on the 32,000-acre ranch east of Santa Margarita. They consider themselves stewards of the land and wish to protect it, Emilee said.

“It’s almost like a sibling because you look after it,” she said. “We’re borrowing it from our grandchildren. We believe we’re just a link in the chain.”

On April 19, the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County entered into a conservation easement on the Camatta Ranch. Members of the Morrison family will continue to own and manage the ranch, but the easement blocks future development on 27,512 acres of the property, close to the size of San Francisco.

“It’s an incredible landscape filled with rolling hills, green grass, oak woodlands and really important wildlife habitat,” Land Conservancy executive director Kaila Dettman said during a recent tour of the property. “It’s really, really exciting to protect something of this scale.”

The Camatta Ranch is the largest conservation easement the Land Conservancy of SLO County has supported, and the second-largest countywide — exceeded only by the Hearst Ranch.

The Camatta Ranch will remain private property, but the public can tour the land through the family’s business Lazy Arrow Adventures, which offers camping and safari tours of the ranch.

“We feel the ranch is a blessing, and when you have a blessing, you need to share it,” co-owner Felicia Morrison said.

Morrison Family, Land Conservancy save ranch from development

After generations of ranching in Southern California, the Morrison family purchased the Camatta Ranch in 1978. Since then, six generations have lived and worked on the 32,000-acre property.

Previously, Mark and Felicia Morrison owned about a third of the ranch, another family member owned a third and the family corporation owned a third, Felicia said.

When Mark’s mother died in 2017, some of the Morrisons wanted to split and sell the land.

“They saw dollar signs,” Felicia said. Meanwhile, Felicia, Mark and their children saw value in keeping the property whole — so they searched for ways to purchase the ranch from the rest of the family.

“Southern California used to look like this,” Felicia said, gesturing to miles of grassy hillsides behind her. “There’s no guarantee that it will stay like this unless we protect it.”

The family partnered with the Land Conservancy of SLO County in 2019. By 2021, the family entered into what Felicia called “The Global Agreement,” where the other owners agreed to sell the majority of the ranch to Felicia, Mark and their children if they acquired the funding within two years.

After a few deadline extensions, the Land Conservancy secured the necessary grants to buy the easement. Mark and Felicia Morrison used the funding from the easement to purchase most of the remaining property from their family.

The easement was funded by $17.52 million in grants from the California Wildlife Conservation Board, the California Department of Conservation, and the California State Coastal Conservancy, along with $880,000 in private donations to the Land Conservancy of SLO County.

The Morrison family will continue to own and manage the ranch under the conservation easement, but the Land Conservancy of SLO County now owns the development rights to the property. This prevents future owners from splitting up and developing the land.

“Our job is to make sure that it largely stays the way it is and we protect it from development,” Dettman said.

The Morrison family considers themselves stewards of the land, and they prioritize sustainable operations.

They wrangle cattle on horseback instead of with vehicles because it’s better for the soil and easier on the cattle, according to Haustin Morrison, the owners’ son who helps manage the ranch.

“It’s such a dying tradition, it’d be a shame not to do it that way anymore,” he said.

The family also rotates the cattle between fields to avoid over-grazing the grass. During drought years, they limit the size of their herd, he said.

“Some people want to take from the land, but we are caretakers of it,” Felicia said. “How you take care of your children, you take care of the land.”

Easement protects migrating mountain lions, black bears

Grasslands carpet the Camatta Ranch, decorated by purple lupine and yellow tidy-tips. Willow trees sway in the breeze along the creek, while oak woodlands stand firm across the property.

The ranch was once an inland lagoon, which carved the hillside and littered the property with aquatic fossils. The Morrisons often find fossilized barnacles, shells and sand dollars among the shrubs — all bleached white with age.

With its varied habitats, the ranch serves as a wildlife corridor for migrating animals, according to Dettman.

“It really is a corridor of statewide significance for our local critters that call this county home,” she said.

A herd of pronghorn antelope migrates from the Carrizo Plain to Shell Creek though the ranch, while black-tailed deer travel from the Carrizo Plain to the La Panza Mountain Range, according to Haustin Morrison. Even burrowing owls use the ranch as a flyway from the Carrizo Plain to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Mountain lions and black bears also migrate through the ranch to the Los Padres National Forest. While mountain lions are often captured on the property’s wildlife cameras, the felines have so much space to roam that the Morrisons have never seen one in person, according to Haustin.

The easement will keep the land wild and protect these migration paths for future generations of critters.

The Morrison Family also takes care of more than 250 exotic animals on the ranch — including buffalo, according to Haustin.

Meanwhile, the ranch is home to about 90% of the population of the Camatta Canyon amole, an indigo, star-shaped lily native to the La Panza Range. The easement offers the threatened flower the protection it needs, according to Dettman.

“The biodiversity on this ranch is phenomenal and so important to preserving threatened and endangered species,” she said.

Preserving the habitat also helps to “keep the common species common,” she said.

California condors, golden eagles, bald eagles and red-tailed hawks swoop through the sky — a common sight at the ranch.

“It was very important to protect this place so they can continue to thrive here,” Dettman said.