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A regenerative farm at Jalama Canyon Ranch seeks to capture the spirit of Santa Barbara’s landscape by striking harmony between the new and the old.
Santa Barbara is known for its sprawling ranches and vineyards. But the agricultural practices that have pervaded the region since Spanish colonization are in many ways incompatible with the health of the landscape’s natural ecosystems.
For Jesse Smith, director of land stewardship at the White Buffalo Land Trust, a local conservation group, this is personal. Jesse was born and raised in Santa Barbara and is intent on harnessing the untapped potential of the county’s agriculture.
“I’d love to sit back when I’m old and see Santa Barbara on a global stage as one of the most unique food and agricultural expressions,” he says.
With his group, Jesse is trying to make these changes at the 1,000-acre Jalama Canyon Ranch, with the hope that the work can be a model for agriculture locally and beyond.
Prioritizing the Entire Ecosystem
The Jalama Canyon Ranch sits on the western edge of the Santa Ynez watershed and borders the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve. The landscape displays the ecological diversity that’s typical of Mediterranean climates: grassland Savanna, oak woodland, riparian corridors, coastal sage scrub, and managed agroforestry such as orchards and vineyards.
White Buffalo Land Trust purchased the Jalama Canyon Ranch in 2021 in a combined effort with other groups, including the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County, and is in charge of operations on the ranch. Since the purchase, the conservation group has been using regenerative agriculture, an approach that takes into account the holistic wellbeing of the ecosystem, to restore the ranch.
Jesse handles decision-making and oversees projects at the ranch, which involves everything from handling paperwork to building fences. In the process of restoring the land, Jesse has advocated for a nuanced approach. “I think it’s important to see degradation and wildlife risk within a larger context of our country and our region,” he says.
The ranching and livestock practices Spanish settlers brought to the land, for instance, led to a couple hundred years of ecological degradation — but applying regenerative agriculture doesn’t mean doing away with all of the agricultural practices they put in place.
“We’re not going to get rid of all the non-native European grasses throughout this landscape or have a full shift away from cattle ranching and have people all of a sudden ranching native Tule elk,” Jesse says.
Reenvisioning Cattle Ranching
One way White Buffalo Land Trust is attempting to strike this balance at Jalama Canyon is through its cattle practices.
Modern cattle ranching in the U.S. involves keeping cattle on the property year-round. In Santa Barbara, these practices have wreaked havoc on native perennial grasses, which require a summer dry season to recover. With year-round grazing, these grasses don’t get that recovery time.
White Buffalo Land Trust still ranches cattle at Jalama Canyon. But in order to ensure that cattle ranching can exist in harmony with the natural ecosystem, it has created a migratory pattern for its herds that mimics that of native ungulates. Large livestock remain on the property only during growing season; once they reach market weight, they’re sent to a grass-fed beef market in Northern California.
I’d love to sit back when I’m old and see Santa Barbara on a global stage as one of the most unique food and agricultural expressions.
– Jesse Smith, White Buffalo Land Trust
This allows the native perennial grasses to have the recovery period they need. “I was just at one of our restoration sites, and it was amazing to see these grasses that are starting to come back,” Jesse says.
A Scientific Approach
Jalama Canyon Ranch is also a site of extensive research. The White Buffalo Land Trust calls it a “living laboratory.”
These studies are already yielding informative results. Caltech conducted research on methane-sequestering bacteria called methanotrophs at the ranch. The study sought to discover where the bacteria lives — in rangelands, grasslands, riparian corridors, vineyards, oaks, or sage brush. Results indicated that coastal sage scrub has a large concentration of methanotrophs and thus a relatively high methane-sequestration rate.
“This shows the value of those specific ecological sites that sometimes get burned down by ranchers who think that sage scrub is terrible because it’s not good forage for cattle,” Jesse says.
Selling Regenerative
Another aspect of the ranch’s mission is inviting the public to experience it — everyone from students to elected officials. Jesse talks about the simple power of flipping over a cow pie in front of a group of policymakers, showing them the dung beetles that are there transferring carbon and organic matter into the soil.
White Buffalo’s practice of rotating pastures is what protects the existence of dung beetles, which are essential to the health of the ecosystem. When cattle don’t stay in any one pasture for too long, they’re less likely to get parasites, which means ranchers don’t have to use dewormers, which would trickle down their digestive system and kill the dung beetles.
In addition, White Buffalo Land Trust is launching business ventures from its vineyards, orchards, fields, and herds with the aim of increasing demand for regenerative-sourced products. These products include Sandhi Wine and the brand Figure Ate, which sells persimmon vinegar and grass-fed-beef biltong sourced from the ranch.
The project at Jalama Canyon Ranch is just getting started, but Jesse is hopeful that it will change Santa Barbara agriculture for the better.
“The fact that everyone we’ve talked to about this work finds something to resonate with, even if they’re coming from a place of skepticism, gives me hope,” Jesse says.
