The Land’s Story
Even today San Marcos Foothills tells the story of its past. White-tailed Kites hover as they search for prey while bobcats and coyotes roam the slopes and streambeds of the Foothills as they have for countless centuries. Here the ancestors of the Chumash people regularly harvested plants for food, clothing, tools, fiber, and medicine. Evidence of a permanent village and eight seasonal campsites exist on the property.

San Marcos Foothills used to be part of the 800-acre La Paloma Ranch, which supported a dairy and small farm in addition to cattle grazing operations. During the era of silent movies, Flying A Studios in Santa Barbara shot scenes for Westerns in the foothills.

Beginning with the booming growth years of the 1970s, developers came forward with various elaborate plans for the Foothills—all of which were denied by the County. Through the tireless efforts of hundreds of preservation advocates, the Foothills site miraculously escaped development when properties surrounding it were being bulldozed and paved for residential projects, churches, and State Highway 154.

Natural Resources
The natural history of the Foothills begins with the geological and hydrological forces that shaped our region. The Foothills property stands as a link between mountain and ocean, through corridors to Los Padres National Forest and through waterways to Goleta Slough. These corridors allow for passage of wildlife that can restore and replenish the Foothills in case of a natural disaster. Passing through the site are Atascadero Creek, Cieneguitas Creek, a persistently wet tributary of Cieneguitas Creek (as yet unnamed), and a small eastern tributary to San Antonio Creek.

Centerpiece of the Foothills’ treasures is the West Mesa with its stunning South Coast views and its intriguing boulder field. Pleistocene epoch mudflows approximately 2 million years ago deposited rubble from the mountains, including the boulders in this fanglomerate formation (pictured), which have been exposed by erosion. Similar local landforms elsewhere have been covered or fragmented by development. This is the only significant remaining such landform in the South Coast.

For Native Americans, the partially exposed boulders served as bedrock metates (grinding stones). For snakes, lizards, and rodents, the boulders provide protection from cattle and provide thermal stability at many times of the year. For Grasshopper Sparrows they are song perches for mate attraction and territorial display. They shelter the burrows for Burrowing Owls, and serve as perch sites for Greater Roadrunners and hunting posts for American Kestrels. The boulders give the West Mesa the ecological expression and the prairie-like beauty provided by none other of our remaining grasslands.

West Mesa Wetlands: A system of small wetlands, connected by subsurface hydrology, form in the swales of the undulating topography that is the West Mesa.