Wind Wolves Preserve

The preserve is an ecologically unique region where the Transverse Ranges, Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada, western Mojave Desert and San Joaquin Valley converge. Due to elevation ranging from 640 to 6,005 feet, the preserve has an impressive array of landforms and habitats that serve as a critical landscape linkage and wildlife corridor between the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada. At 93,000 acres, Wind Wolves is the west coast's largest non-profit preserve. An important conservation outcome of TWC's ownership is that TWC led a Tejon Ranch Working Group of conservation organizations that resulted in a plan to double the target amount of conserved land on the neighboring Tejon Ranch to over 230,000 acres.

Tule elk were reintroduced to the Wind Wolves Preserve, the southern most extension of their historic range. The elk herd has grown to more than 200 elk and the California Department of Fish and Game estimates the preserve can support up to 2,500 elk. Currently the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is placing stillborn calves on the preserve for the California Condor, which can be seen regularly. When the elk herd reaches 2,000, elk will die weekly of attrition, which will aid the condors in becoming free living once more.

On the San Joaquin Valley floor, the preserve is a 30-square-mile veritable sea of grasslands with remnant stands of saltbush. These grasslands are home to the endangered San Joaquin kit fox and blunt-nosed leopard lizard, and one of the largest stands of the endangered Bakersfield cactus. Rolling grasslands rise from the valley floor and transition into classic California blue oak and valley oak savanna with extensive riparian wetlands. The oak savanna rises into juniper and pinyon forests that ascend into stands of ponderosa pine and big cone spruce.