San Luis Obispo County’s Wild Cherry Canyon

Rising from the coast behind Avila Beach, Wild Cherry Canyon is one of the most significant remaining undeveloped — and unprotected — landscapes along California’s Central Coast. Its coastal prairie, oak woodlands, chaparral, riparian forests, and headwater streams support exceptional biodiversity and form an important piece of the approximately 12,000-acre Diablo Canyon Lands, a largely intact coastal landscape extending toward Montaña de Oro State Park.

For more than 25 years, people on California’s Central Coast have worked toward a future for Wild Cherry Canyon that permanently safeguards this sublime natural landscape which has been threatened by intensive development.

That future is on the path to becoming a reality. With a $42 million grant approved for the project by the State Coastal Conservancy this past September, and championed by California Senator John Laird, we have an opportunity to raise the remaining $8.5 million to complete this extraordinary project. This moment has been made possible by the generations of local advocates, Tribal partners and conservationists who have cared for and fought to protect this gem from intense development. With your support, The Wildlands Conservancy can close the funding gap that will allow us to acquire, care for, and open this 2,060-acre landscape to free public access. Your gifts are critical to successfully complete this conservation acquisition, and will be highly leveraged against secured public funds.

To restore native habitat and wildlife like California Red-Legged frogs on a landscape shaped by decades of human use. To create opportunities for the public to experience views from hilltop vistas over San Luis Obispo Bay and enjoy a new section of the California Coastal Trail. To work with Tribal communities whose relationships with this land reach far beyond any conservation transaction. And, over time, to create immersive camping opportunities for kids and families to experience this remarkable part of the Central Coast and discover something larger than themselves.

A future Wild Cherry Canyon Preserve could be a place where a child walks beneath the oaks for the first time, looks west toward the Pacific, or spends a night outdoors far from the noise and light of the city.
We want those experiences to be meaningful.

That vision will take time, careful planning and diligent effort to materialize. To this end, Wildlands is participating in the Diablo Canyon Lands Conservation Planning Project, working alongside local communities and Tribal partners to help shape conservation, public access and Tribal access across this larger landscape. At Wild Cherry Canyon itself, our first responsibility is to study the land and its values, begin early management and guided public tours, and build the long-term stewardship capacity necessary for everything that follows.

For more than a quarter century, the central question surrounding Wild Cherry Canyon has been whether it could be protected. We are now closer than ever to being able to ask a different question: What can this land become?

Because of The Wildlands Conservancy’s clear mission and track record of preserving land and providing access to nature, that question can be clearly answered. With the support of so many in the local community and across the State of California, we are proud to be on track to add the land to our nature Preserve System and honored to have the opportunity to help write the next chapter in the conservation story of Wild Cherry Canyon.