Escrow on a historic land deal in Santa Barbara County closed Thursday afternoon as the 24,364-acre Cojo Jalama Ranches (also known as the Bixby Ranch) was purchased for $165 million by The Nature Conservancy, the largest environmental nonprofit in the western hemisphere. The price was negotiated between The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and The Baupost Group, a Boston-based investment firm which had owned the property since 2007; a private donation from Jack and Laura Dangermond enabled TNC to purchase the land. Jack Dangermond is the president and cofounder of Esri, a pioneering company in mapping and spatial-analysis technology.
“Jack and Laura are just amazing people,” said Michael Bell, TNC’s Oceans Program Director in California. “They’re true environmentalists and conservationists at heart. They realized the cultural and ecological importance of this place [and are] huge believers in protecting our natural world and the best remaining natural areas we have.”
“This is an incredibly rare, ecologically important place with eight miles of coast and centuries-old coastal oak woodlands,” Jack Dangermond said in a statement. “This deserves to be preserved and managed by an organization like The Nature Conservancy.”