Who is the Conservancy?

The Santa Lucia Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit land trust incorporated in 1995 to conserve the ecological integrity of the protected lands within the Santa Lucia Preserve in Carmel, California. We are dedicated to advancing the art and science of conservation-compatible development through adaptive land management, conservation easement stewardship, ecological research and environmental education programs.  Learn more here. 

What is The Preserve?

The Santa Lucia Preserve is a private residential community where people and nature thrive together. Extraordinary thought and planning went into the design of this unique community, with the goal of sustainably integrating the human and natural communities for the benefit of both. Learn more.

Recent Blog Posts

Winged Restoration Project to expand monarch habitat

by Suzanne GillCommunications and Outreach Coordinator While the monarch butterfly is among the most beloved wildlife species in the U.S., populations of both the Eastern and Western monarch have declined precipitously since the late 1990s. By 2019, the Western monarch population was estimated to have plummeted to just two percent of the total recorded 22 years earlier, in 1997. The […]

Mule Deer rutting season

October 24, 2023 by Emma Levy, Conservation Ecologist Mule deer find a very welcoming environment on the Santa Lucia Preserve. Discriminating foragers, they seek the most nutritious parts of a variety of plants (including berries and acorns), rather than large quantities of low-quality grasses and leaves. The Preserve’s large variety of vegetation in different habitat areas, combined with its limited human […]

Survey informs update of Strategic Plan

September 26, 2023 Beautiful surroundings, a natural setting, community, and sustainability ranked as the most prized values of life on the Preserve, according to a survey conducted this summer. Those surveyed ranked wildfire mitigation and management as their highest environmental concern (71.6% identified this as important or extremely important), and a significant number expressed strong interest in participating in land […]