Oil on the Range

South of Salinas, where the dark green valley floor gives way to golden slopes of the Gabilan and Santa Lucia mountains, there appears what ranchers call “hill land.” On a bright spring morning, cattle are clustered in the shade of scattered oaks or long-dry creek beds, foraging grass. It’s a windless, still day but for the flicking of cows’ tails and the repetitive pumping of oil rigs, which also dot the landscape, some perched on lonely hilltops or shrouded inconspicuously among oak trees. 
This odd pairing of ranching and oil industries has been a feature of the San Ardo landscape for more than half a century, with little conflict and friendly relations between residents and oil companies. 
Now the oil industry’s footprint in the region faces scrutiny as the Bureau of Land Management plans to lease out about 2,600 acres between Lockwood and Bradley for oil exploration. The current proposal is significantly scaled back from an earlier, 35,000-acre version, but it’s nevertheless stoking debate over how much oil development – and what type – is good for this rural area. Ranchers who lease their land to oil companies worry that increasingly vocal South County activists could scare off additional oil exploration – and with it, revenue they say they need to keep this land rural.
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