SLO County conservation champion Kara Woodruff is taking on a new legislative role
Most people in San Luis Obispo County have been touched, directly or indirectly, by Kara Woodruff’s quarter-century of work in land conservation, protecting the environment and financial management.
Now the 55-year-old has taken her expertise to a new part-time job as a senior policy advisor for state Sen. John Laird. She started in that post March 1, and is working remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Laird and Woodruff share a deep dedication to environmental issues.
Laird was secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency from 2011 to 2019. Prior to that, he served as a California State Assembly member representing parts of Monterey, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties from 2002 to 2008.
“Like so many places in California, San Luis Obispo County faces numerous complex and unique challenges,” Laird wrote in an email Thursday. “From land use controversies and climate change impacts to the challenges we’ll face rebuilding our local economy as the COVID-19 pandemic ebbs, I am extremely excited to have someone as talented as Kara Woodruff join our team.
“Her decades of experience and deep relationship in the community will ensure San Luis Obispo County residents have a strong, clear line of communication to the State Capitol.”
Woodruff, who’s worked for The Nature Conservancy and the American Land Conservancy, was a prime mover in conserving about 100,000 acres of rural land in San Luis Obispo County.
Her conservation projects include the 83,000-acre Hearst Ranch in San Simeon, the 12,500-acre Chimineas Ranch in Carizzo Plain, the 1,500-acre Guidetti Ranch in San Luis Obispo and the 1,500-acre Covell Ranch property.
Woodruff also worked to preserve a total of about 1,000 acres of property in the Irish Hills area, off Davis Canyon Road in San Luis Obiso.
“I consider those accomplishments to be my proudest work, other than being a mother,” she said in a phone interview Thursday.
Woodruff also has been an integral part of the drive to conserve the 2,400 acres of Wild Cherry Canyon, part of the land surrounding Diablo Canyon Power Plant, which she defined as “a conversation that’s yet to be completed.”
She’ll continue to be part of that conversation, bringing her expertise to such issues as “the decommissioning of Diablo Canyon and all that goes along with that.”
“It is probably the most challenging issue facing the Central Coast,” Woodruff said, “with the loss of jobs, and the opportunity to conserve and provide public access to the 12,000 acres of Diablo Canyon land when they’re no longer needed by the utility.”
Steve Hearst, Hearst Corp. vice president, negotiated with Woodruff at American Land Conservancy and The Nature Conservancy during the five years it took to finalize the Hearst Ranch conservation project.
Hearst said Thursday if he was going to work in San Luis Obispo County in a political field and was going to hire someone to help him, “I’d want someone who not only knew what’s going on with the community at a grass-roots level but also on the political level.”
He said Woodruff “is very intelligent, relentless and she has values that I think reflect a lot of what’s on the Central Coast. She does recognize the value of stewards of the land, the ranchers, and that we’ve been around for a very long time.”
Hearst said Woodruff also recognizes what he calls the area’s “quilt — the flora, fauna, the visual aspects, the interest of the community, all of what comes with not changing what people really don’t want changed.”
With Laird, Woodruff’s sphere of influence also will include “other land use/conservation issues and seeking solutions to the very difficult homeless situation … all topics that are near and dear to my heart,” she said.
She called 40 Prado Homeless Services Center in San Luis Obispo and El Camino Homeless Organization (ECHO) in Atascadero “excellent. ... Now we have to find out how the state can support their efforts, expanding their ability to reach out to this very vulnerable population,” she said.
Woodruff also will continue her work as a financial planner at Blakeslee & Blakeslee, which has branch offices in Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo and Orcutt, on a part-time basis. To free up enough time for her new job, she said, she has handed off her vice presidential and principal management responsibilities there.
Woodruff holds a law doctorate and public policy master’s degree from Duke University, and a bachelor of science degree in business administration from Cal Poly, graduating magna cum laude in 1987.
For nearly 20 years, she’s been an active member of the California State Bar.
Woodruff is the founder and president of American Woodland Conservancy and a co-founder of Friends of Oso Flaco Lake and Friends of Wild Cherry Canyon, a member of the Diablo Canyon Decommissioning Engagement Panel and Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County’s Land Committee. She’s a former director on the Land Conservancy board.
Woodruff’s new job isn’t her first time working in senate chambers.
“More than 30 years ago, I worked for (then) State Sen. John Garamendi,” during her year as a senate fellow from 1988 to 1989, she said.
She is able to tackle this new challenge in part, Woodruff said, because she’ll soon be “an empty nester.”
Daughter Landis Blakeslee, 17, is a senior at San Luis Obispo High School who is waiting to see which college she’ll attend. “The University of Oregon has already sent her an acceptance,” her proud mom said, “but she’s waiting to hear from the state universities before she makes her decision.”
Daughter Harland Woodruff, 25, a Yale grad, is working in New York for a nonprofit organization. “Harland went on a lot of Nature Conservancy outings with me, including on the Hearst Ranch,” Kara Woodruff said.
Laird won election to the California State Senate in 2020. The Democrat represents District 17, which includes Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo counties in their entirety, as well as portions of Monterey and Santa Clara Counties.
“There are lots of great reasons to work for John Laird,” Woodruff said. “He’s smart and engaged, he does his homework and has unusually broad and deep experience in policy issues.”
Through her years of working with Laird and his resources agency, she knows him “to be dedicated to environmental and conservation issues. It’s exciting, because he has a legacy of conservation,” she said, “and I know my experience will be well received. At the end of the day, representing John Laird and all the issues we’ll tackle will be challenging, exciting and satisfying.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
