CARRIZO PLAIN NATIONAL MONUMENT

An up-and-coming destination

An environmental group’s study shows increasing potential for tourism dollars at the 250,000-acre plain

By David Sneed

The Carrizo Plain National Monument boosts local economies, but Kern County and the town of Taft stand to derive the biggest benefit.

That’s one of the conclusions of a study released this week by the Wilderness Society, a national environmental group. The 47-page report found that the existence of the 250,000-acre monument in the southeast corner of San Luis Obispo County benefits surrounding communities by diversifying the region’s economy.

“The presence and management of the monument can serve to attract new businesses, which will diversify the economies of these neighboring communities,” the report concludes.

The authors of the report were in the county this week meeting with city and chamber of commerce officials in San Luis Obispo and Atascadero to discuss the study, which they hope will encourage county residents to support protecting the monument.

The report comes as an oil company, Vintage Production, is proposing new exploration in the monument. The company owns 30,000 acres of mineral rights on the valley floor of the monument.

The Wilderness Society has identified Atascadero as a possible western gateway for the monument. The Kern County city of Taft has already established itself as the eastern entrance to the monument.

Joanne Main, president of the Atascadero Chamber of Commerce, said her group, too, tries to take advantage of its relative proximity to the monument.

“We’ve always promoted and kept information about the Carrizo Plain as a destination,” she said.

The monument was established by presidential decree in 2001 as a way to protect one of the last remaining grassland ecosystems that were common in the San Joaquin Valley in prehistoric times. It has one of the highest concentrations of rare and endangered plants and animals in the state.

Federal designations, like national monuments, benefit local economies because they draw public attention to the nearby communities and create a new tourist destination, said Alice Bond, one of the report’s authors.

“It’s a major change in the way the land is looked at,” she said.

Based on the number of people who stop by the monument’s visitor center and the number of cars that enter the park, visitation has steadily increased every year since the monument was established, said Michelle Haefele, another of the report’s authors and an economic researcher with the Wilderness Society.

The designation is particularly beneficial for Taft and Kern County because it adds a tourism component to an economy that has historically been based primarily on resource extraction, such as oil drilling, the report said. Taft is the closest city to the monument.

In the case of San Luis Obispo County, which already has a well-established tourism industry, the monument is another destination for visitors who come to the county for its beaches, wineries and state parks, Bond said.

The group chose the Carrizo Plain to study because its designation as a national monument is relatively new, it contains unique resources and is in an area that has not had a strong tourism component, Bond said.