The Nature Conservancy has announced a $50 million gift from Frank and Joan Randall to create a 72,000-acre nature preserve in California.

The Frank and Joan Randall Preserve in the Southern Sierra Nevada and Tehachapi Mountains will protect a biodiversity hotspot at the convergence of four diverse ecoregions — Sierra Nevada, Mojave Desert, Central Valley, and South Coast. It also will preserve a critical link in a wildlife corridor that spans not just California but the entire west coast of the continent, from Mexico to Alaska. As accelerating climate change exacerbates habitat loss and fragmentation, the wildlife corridor enables rare, threatened, and endangered species to move and adapt to a changing environment.

“What is striking about the Randall Preserve and this area of the Tehachapis is not only its rugged beauty, but also its unique topography,” said Mike Sweeney, executive director of the Nature Conservancy in California. “It goes from these very high elevations where you can see snow, all the way down to the Mojave Desert and the Central Valley, and everything in between. This preserve will also ensure a much-needed corridor for wildlife, like endangered mountain lions to the south, so they can mix and move, migrate, and adapt.”

Other public and private donors supporting the creation of TNC’s largest preserve in California include the Wildlife Conservation Board, the Department of the Navy, CalTrans, Resources Legacy Fund, Sierra Nevada Conservancy, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. In 2019, the Randalls pledged to transfer $45 million in stock to the Trust for Public Land to help buy Banning Ranch, a 400-acre parcel of wetland and coastal bluffs where the Santa Ana River meets the Pacific Ocean.

“Preserving open space has long been a passion of ours,” said Frank Randall. “Once it’s gone, it’s gone. This area was under threat but, together with the Nature Conservancy, we’re doing everything we can to make sure this beautiful and ecologically diverse part of our state can stand the test of time for generations to come.”

(Photo credit: Rennett Stowe via flickr)