Chumash Cultural Resource Preservation - CCRP

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Chumash Cultural Resource Preservation - CCRP We are preservation advocates working together to preserve archaeological sites and other cultural resources. WHAT ARE CULTURAL RESOURCES?

Our mission is to protect and preserve cultural resources such as sacred sites, archaeological sites, historical sites, and resource gathering. The term "cultural resources" generally refers to aspects of a cultural system that are valued by or are significantly representative of a culture or that contain significant information about a culture. Cultural resources may be tangible entities (such as sites, buildings, and objects) or cultural practices. The term is often applied to sites, areas, or buildings which represent significant places or events in the flow of human experience. The term sometimes specifically refers to the remnants, evidence, and areas associated with human activities or otherwise considered significant or important, and may include the following:

* Prehistoric and ethno-historic Native American archaeological sites.

* Historic archaeological sites.

* Historic buildings or structures.

* Elements or areas of the natural landscape which have traditional cultural significance.

* Prehistoric and Ethnohistoric Native American Archaeological Sites

* Prehistoric sites represent the material remnants of Native American societies and their activities.

* Ethnohistoric sites are defined as Native American settlements occupied after the arrival of European settlers in California. Such sites include villages, seasonal camp sites, stone tool quarry sites, hunting and butchering sites, traditional trails, and sites with rock carvings or paintings. Archaeologists identify such sites by the presence of one or more of the following:

* Stone flakes made of chert, jasper, quartzite, quartz, basalt, obsidian, and other rock types.

* Shell, animal bone, ground stone tools used for grinding seeds, such as manos, mutates, or bedrock mortars.

* Plant foods, such as carbonized seeds.

* Artifacts, such as arrow or spear points, and fragments of pottery vessels.

* Darker soil with evidence of human activity, called midden.

* Circular depressions representing houses or ceremonial structures. Areas of Traditional Cultural Significance
These are areas that have been, and often continue to be, of economic and/or religious significance to people today. They include Native American sacred areas where religious ceremonies are practiced or which are central to their origins as a people. They also include areas where Native Americans gather plants for food, medicinal, or economic purposes. A certain degree of protection is provided for such resources by California state law.

10/12/2026

A cherished and wondrous piece of the Gaviota Coast has held its breath for 140 years under the pressure of development. It is now very close to exhaling a sigh of relief.⁠
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The people and organizations who have spent generations protecting it are now on the cusp of not only buying the land, but preserving it in perpetuity and eventually opening its gates to the public.⁠
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The Naples property (officially known as Santa Barbara Ranch), comprising more than 1,000 acres just west of Goleta, went up for sale last year.⁠
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Again.⁠
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It had been put on the market many times before. Ambitious developers came and went. Conservationists — and even the land itself, open-minded eccentrics believe — have long played defense.⁠
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If all goes according to plan, the fought-over landscape will never see the proverbial pickaxe. The aforementioned conservationists are working to secure the full $81 million enchilada.⁠
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The buyer is the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving open land against development interests. To date, that amounts to nearly 60,000 acres across Santa Barbara County, including the Arroyo Hondo Preserve, just a stone’s throw away from Naples.⁠
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“The Land Trust has been around for 40 years, and working to conserve the Gaviota Coast has been a part of that the whole time,” said Executive Director Meredith Hendricks. The organization views Naples as part of its next chapter.⁠
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The budding, but not yet final, sale begs the question: Is this the end of the Naples saga? Or is this just the beginning of a marvelous future?⁠

Read More: https://www.independent.com/2026/10/08/saving-naples-once-and-for-all/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Cover-Story-&utm_content=Environment&utm_gen=utmdc
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📸: Gavin Palmer; Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

10/09/2026

The 1,000-plus-acre Naples/Santa Barbara Ranch property on the Gaviota Coast may be purchased by the Land Trust of Santa Barbara County, after decades of

10/09/2026

With new oil and gas leases on the horizon for federal waters off California’s coast, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law that secures protections for the state’s coastline. ⁠
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Assembly Bill 1448, authored by Assemblymember Gregg Hart of Santa Barbara, prohibits any new offshore oil and gas operations, under leases issued after January 1, 2026, from using state-controlled offshore infrastructure.⁠
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That means if oil or gas is drilled in federal waters off California in the future, operators cannot use existing infrastructure in state waters — such as oil rigs and pipelines — to produce, process, or transport that oil or gas. ⁠
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The new law, which takes effect in January 2027, comes as the Trump administration has proposed opening California’s coast to six new federal offshore oil leases from 2027 to 2030. California has prohibited new drilling in state waters for more than three decades, and the federal government has not issued a new offshore oil and gas lease off California since 1984.⁠

Read more: https://www.independent.com/2026/10/06/santa-barbara-environmentalists-celebrate-newsoms-signing-of-one-of-strongest-anti-offshore-oil-bills-in-states-history/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Environment&utm_content=Anti-Offshore&utm_gen=utmdc
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📸: Courtesy

10/09/2026

Conservation groups launch $16 million community campaign to permanently protect more than 1,000 acres on the Gaviota Coast

10/08/2026

The Save More Mesa campaign got quite a boost last weekend. Jack Johnson and Zach Gill were seen wearing the campaign shirts at the Santa Barbara Bowl. More Mesa is 265 acres of coastal open space, trails, and the last public beach access on a 5-mile stretch of our coastline east of Goleta Beach.

10/04/2026

September 30, 1769 – The explorers leave their campsite near present-day Chualar early in the morning and march five hours along the riverbanks to a new camp just south of what is now the city of Salinas. By this time the valley has become a wide plain with some low hills in the distance on either side. Portolá is well aware that he must be approaching Monterey, so he dispatches scouts with orders to follow the river to its mouth and ascertain if it discharges into Monterey Bay. The scouts return late in the day to report that the river terminated at a large estuary bordered by sand dunes. They had seen a point of land which seemed to correspond to the description of Punta de los Pinos, as given by Cabrera Bueno. There is much discussion among the explorers regarding the river they had been following, whether it was the Carmel River or another unknown river. Others speculate that they had ridden too far north while trying to get around the Santa Lucia Mountains, and that the port of Monterey lay to the south. Padre Crespí mentions in his journal that some of the soldiers are experiencing pains in their legs, a medical condition he calls ‘Luanda sickness’.

10/04/2026
09/21/2026

After a morning of epic deliberations, the Board of Supervisors took the first step of what promises to be a protracted and historic pivot to pull the plug on all onshore oil development anywhere in Santa Barbara County. This Tuesday, the supervisors narrowly approved—by a 3-to-2 vote — a ban on any new onshore oil drilling. ⁠
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The last time a new drilling proposal was approved took place in 2014. ⁠
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Since all onshore oil production takes place in North County, the vote predictably followed the board’s traditional north-south split. This week’s vote was strategically tailored to ban only new drilling proposals, but in meetings over the past two years, the board majority had clearly indicated its intentions stop all existing onshore oil operations in the years to come as well. ⁠
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To inoculate itself against inevitable litigation claiming an illegal, unconstitutional, and uncompensated “taking,” the board majority is hoping to stretch this closure of what has been one of the county’s foundational industries over a long period of time. How long this process — known as “amortization” — will take has yet to be determined. The supervisors were told Tuesday that it will take three years to determine how long this amortization process would be. An environmental impact report would have to be prepared and fought over. ⁠

Read more: https://www.independent.com/2026/09/15/santa-barbara-county-supervisors-bans-new-onshore-oil-drilling/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Energy&utm_content=Oil-Vote&utm_gen=utmdc
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📸: Ingrid Bostrom / Santa Barbara Independent

09/06/2026
08/31/2026

California Governor Newsom has an opportunity to sign legislation to protect California’s coast from expanded offshore oil drilling, improve public oversight, and enhance safety requirements. His signature is critically important to fighting plans by current and future Presidential Administrations to increase coastal drilling in federal waters and the risk of another devastating oil spill.

AB 1448 (the California Coastal Protection Act), introduced by California Assembly Member Gregg Hart (Santa Barbara) and coauthored by California State Senator Henry Stern (Sherman Oaks), would prohibit the use of existing California infrastructure to expand federal oil production. It would strengthen pipeline safety rules and protocols. It would also add important review authority for the California State Lands Commission on existing leases and require the agency to consider additional environmental and safety factors before renewing or transferring leases.

AB 1448 passed the Assembly on August 27 and is now on the Governor’s desk awaiting his decision to sign it into law. Now is the time to show your support. Please urge the Governor to take this important step to protect our coast and communities from future oil spills.

Send your email today to: [email protected]

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Santa Barbara, CA
93102

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