Hibbit Ranch Conservation Easement

In 2010, the Hind Foundation granted $50,000 to the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County to help fund the Hibbits Ranch conservation easement. The Hibbits Ranch is the largest single land holding within a block of scenic and highly productive farmland framed by the City of Lompoc, the Santa Ynez River and Santa Rosa Hills, and La Purisima Mission State Park. The Land Trust was recently granted funds for a conservation easement on the Hibbits Ranch by the USDA Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program. A matching grant is pending from the California Farmland Conservancy Program and the Land Trust will need to raise an additional $150,000 in local funds to complete the transaction.

Noteworthy Outcomes
•    Easement Returns
The easement will benefit the community by keeping land with highly productive soils viable for agriculture, maintaining a farming history that began in 1897, and preserving the rural landscape that is the gateway to Lompoc and the scenic backdrop to Mission La Purisima State Historic Park.