Waheto National Park
Waheto National Park
(Also known as Rancho Guejito)
Waheto is derived from the word Wixe'to, which is the Payomkowishum Indian name for Pine Mountain, or"Sugar Pine Place," a sacred mountain on the northern portion of this land."Waheto" is pronounced wa-heh 'toe, with an accent on the 'toe.
Proposed Waheto National Park boundaries (in red)
on a recent map of the area north of San Diego, California.
A Priceless Landscape
Rancho Guejito is a 21,000+ acre landscape in northern San Diego County filled with natural treasures found nowhere else in California. Old Engelmann oak groves, vast stands of beautiful chaparral, and seemingly endless native grasslands provide habitat for a remarkable variety of animals including mountain lions, bobcats, deer, and the endangered, curious little Stephens' kangaroo rat. It also holds a vast store of Native American tradition and history. Both the Payomkowishum and the Kumeyaay Indians called the area home for thousands of years.
It has always been Benjamin and Nancy Coates' wish (the rancho's owners since the 1970's) that the property be protected from development forever and preserved in its pristine state.
It has always been Benjamin and Nancy Coates' wish (the rancho's owners since the 1970's) that the property be protected from development forever and preserved in its pristine state.
"Mercy no, we're not going to develop it!" said Nancy Coates in February, 2006 when presenting a donation to the Valley Center History Museum. "It is as if time stands still. You are spellbound by its vast and peaceful serenity. My husband fought hard to keep Guejito in its natural state. He could never see how anyone would want to change such a paradise and he used all his connections to keep it so."
To honor Benjamin and Nancy Coates' dream, all of Rancho Guejito needs to be preserved. The best way to do so is by designating the rancho, along with some of the beautiful public lands surrounding the property, as the new Waheto National Park for all Americans to enjoy.
Documents supporting the public acquisition of Waheto
The Conservation Significance of Rancho Guejito by the Conservation Biology Institute (93 pages)
County Supervisor seeks federal help to buy Waheto
Waheto included in River Park's planning boundaries
Waheto is every San Diegan's legacy - by Phil Pryde
Tommy Hough's Program Treehugger's International has an excellent audio program on Rancho Guejito
A brief History of Rancho Guejito by the Save Our Heritage Organization
Waheto shooting stars.
The edge of one of the two grand mesas on Waheto.
National Park status would prevent further mismanagement of Waheto
While the current land managers of the Guejito Ranch claim they are properly managing and protecting the fragile ecosystems of Waheto, evidence suggests otherwise.
Livestock
Cattle grazing is preventing the natural regeneration of the rare Englemann oak. If such grazing activity is not controlled significantly, much of the oak woodland now present on Waheto will likely be lost over time.
Stream Pollution
Many of the delicate streams have been denuded of their native sycamores and willows and polluted with livestock waste, seriously compromising the ecological health of important riparian habitats.
Chaparral as the Enemy
According to a fire management strategy that was developed after the 2003 wildfires, the current managers of the ranch see "environmental preserves" as areas only filled with "brush" that "spawn unnaturally destructive firestorms which will kill everything that cannot fly away or dig deep underground." Instead, the managers view habitat clearance as their main hope to protect the natural environment on the ranch because they claim "cattle" and "clearing" saved Waheto from burning during the 2007 wildfires. Most of the ranch burned in the those fires.
Loss of Native Grassland
Cattle grazing continues to prevent the restoration of Waheto's vast native grassland. As the photo below demonstrates, California's official State Grass (Nasella pulchra) is overgrazed, preventing it from developing its normal growth habit and restoring the grassland to its healthy, natural state.
In the foreground is a beautiful California native grassland characterized by purple needle grass. On the other side of the fence where cattle are allowed to graze, the grassland has turned into one dominated by non-native weeds.
A legacy Englemann oak. Due to extensive cattle grazing on Waheto, few saplings ever survive. Consequently, the Engelmann oak will likely disappear from much of Waheto if cattle are allowed to remain.
A centuries old legacy coast live oak at the northern end of Waheto.
Looking south from Waheto.
One of the broad mesa tops of Waheto looking toward the south.
Looking north from the mesa at the sacred mountain of Waheto (center left on horizon).
The iron rich, gabbro soils of the Waheto mesa slowly erode.
An historic adobe on Waheto.
Another historic adobe structure on Waheto.
Threats of Development at Waheto
Guejito dream or nightmare?By RICK MERCURIO -- For the North County Times | March 9, 2010
Benjamin Coates had a vision for Rancho Guejito, the last undeveloped Mexican land grant in California. He spoke with passion and pride that his vast, wild land holding in North County would forever remain as open space.
He had good reason for this desire. The land is pristine, with multiple species of native plants and animals living freely in a natural environment. Riparian (riverbed) habitats meander through oak woodlands and chaparral hillsides, leading to mountainous terrain. Native Americans have their own reasons to revere these hills and valleys.
Guejito, 36 square miles east of Escondido and Valley Center, also serves as a wildlife corridor connecting Palomar Mountain and the Cleveland National Forest with some of North County's pockets of open space, including Daley Ranch and Hellhole Canyon.
Coates, who died in 2004, would be devastated that his heirs have not only blurred his vision, but have turned it upside-down. Rather than create the dedicated preserve Coates had planned, they would prefer to create a financial windfall for themselves.
Preliminary plans call for an urbanized cluster of possibly thousands of units to be built on 6,000 acres. The developer, the Rodney Company, touts its generosity of leaving the original land grant intact as open space. The company would only use acreage purchased subsequently.
But this is a disingenuous gesture. Almost all of the land ---- both the original grant and the newly acquired ---- is basically unbuildable. In effect, the offer is to gain approval for a vast, new urban cluster in a rural area, in exchange for not building on land that could not sustain development.
Some of us have seen this tactic before: Buy land with steep slopes, rocky terrain, far from existing infrastructure, then ask governmental bodies for massive zoning concessions, so they can cluster houses on the few relatively level portions of an otherwise unbuildable parcel.
It is true that this is private property, and the owners have been paying taxes on it. But that does not convey an inherent right to rezone the land. No one is standing in their way of developing the land as the general plan permits.
Rural, inaccessible land, however, is taxed and zoned as such, and any request to change its legal status is called real estate speculation. Developers gamble that they can wrangle three votes from the elected bodies that control land use (translated city councils and county boards of supervisors) to approve their general plan amendments.
Not only would the developer of Guejito need a huge increase in zoning, it is asking the public to accept leapfrog development that would shatter the concept of "smart growth" ---- where new growth is adjacent to existing infrastructure and transportation corridors.
Coates was a visionary, and we must remember his dream ---- before the land he loved is transformed into an irreversible urban nightmare
Priceless TreasurePublic can buy vast North County rancho
San Diego Union-TribuneJanuary 16, 2007
People often use the term "priceless" to describe possessions that are too valuable to lose. But markets are pretty good at putting a price on "priceless" assets, and that process is under way at Rancho Guejito, the glittering environmental jewel of Southern California that is tucked into a hidden valley of North San Diego County.
If you have never heard of Rancho Guejito, don't feel bad -- few people have ever seen it. The property is big: 36 square miles, or about 21,000 acres, that sprawls in a vast rectangle from behind the Wild Animal Park, near Escondido, northeast to the 4,221-foot peak of Pine Mountain, near the La Jolla Indian Reservation.
Rancho Guejito is the last intact Mexican land grant in California. To stand in the hush of its grasslands is to revisit San Diego's Old West. Along with a token herd of cattle, it is home to golden eagles, mountain lions, deer and pristine stands of Engleman oak trees, along with archaeologically and historically important sites. Eastern industrialist Benjamin Coates bought the property for $10 million in 1974, after the state failed to buy it for a park. He spent 30 years enjoying his property and fighting off environmentalists, airport planners, dump developers and others. But Coates died in 2004. His heirs and partners have been busy since.
Their hand was forced by the county government's General Plan 2020, an unfinished blueprint for growth that could sharply reduce development prospects for the rancho -- and thus the property's market value. So Guejito's owners hired Jim Whalen, a top-tier development consultant who sits on an advisory board to GP2020. Neighbors soon spotted surveyors, prompting the owners' spokesman, Temecula attorney Henry Rupp, to deny that any development was planned. But last week another shoe dropped. The rancho's owners asked Escondido city officials to explore its annexation. This would place the property beyond the reach of county planners.
Rupp will find open arms on Escondido's City Council. Rancho Guejito would double the city's land mass. And Rupp is peddling a vision of a medical research campus to a council that is desperate for high-paying jobs. Of course, annexation is monstrously difficult. And environmentalists are girding for battle. More broadly, Escondido might approve thousands of new homes, miles from roads, power and water supplies. This kind of leap-frog development strains infrastructure and runs afoul of state laws that mandate infill near existing cities. Still, any steps toward development increase Guejito's value -- well into tens of millions of dollars, based on recent deals for the Hearst and Ahmanson ranches.
By far, San Diego County's 3 million people would gain the most from preserving the land. Between state park bonds and environmental funds in the TransNet tax, we have the money. The public should have this jewel, and Coates' heirs can get a fair price.
Benjamin Coates had a vision for Rancho Guejito, the last undeveloped Mexican land grant in California. He spoke with passion and pride that his vast, wild land holding in North County would forever remain as open space.
He had good reason for this desire. The land is pristine, with multiple species of native plants and animals living freely in a natural environment. Riparian (riverbed) habitats meander through oak woodlands and chaparral hillsides, leading to mountainous terrain. Native Americans have their own reasons to revere these hills and valleys.
Guejito, 36 square miles east of Escondido and Valley Center, also serves as a wildlife corridor connecting Palomar Mountain and the Cleveland National Forest with some of North County's pockets of open space, including Daley Ranch and Hellhole Canyon.
Coates, who died in 2004, would be devastated that his heirs have not only blurred his vision, but have turned it upside-down. Rather than create the dedicated preserve Coates had planned, they would prefer to create a financial windfall for themselves.
Preliminary plans call for an urbanized cluster of possibly thousands of units to be built on 6,000 acres. The developer, the Rodney Company, touts its generosity of leaving the original land grant intact as open space. The company would only use acreage purchased subsequently.
But this is a disingenuous gesture. Almost all of the land ---- both the original grant and the newly acquired ---- is basically unbuildable. In effect, the offer is to gain approval for a vast, new urban cluster in a rural area, in exchange for not building on land that could not sustain development.
Some of us have seen this tactic before: Buy land with steep slopes, rocky terrain, far from existing infrastructure, then ask governmental bodies for massive zoning concessions, so they can cluster houses on the few relatively level portions of an otherwise unbuildable parcel.
It is true that this is private property, and the owners have been paying taxes on it. But that does not convey an inherent right to rezone the land. No one is standing in their way of developing the land as the general plan permits.
Rural, inaccessible land, however, is taxed and zoned as such, and any request to change its legal status is called real estate speculation. Developers gamble that they can wrangle three votes from the elected bodies that control land use (translated city councils and county boards of supervisors) to approve their general plan amendments.
Not only would the developer of Guejito need a huge increase in zoning, it is asking the public to accept leapfrog development that would shatter the concept of "smart growth" ---- where new growth is adjacent to existing infrastructure and transportation corridors.
Coates was a visionary, and we must remember his dream ---- before the land he loved is transformed into an irreversible urban nightmare
Priceless TreasurePublic can buy vast North County rancho
San Diego Union-TribuneJanuary 16, 2007
People often use the term "priceless" to describe possessions that are too valuable to lose. But markets are pretty good at putting a price on "priceless" assets, and that process is under way at Rancho Guejito, the glittering environmental jewel of Southern California that is tucked into a hidden valley of North San Diego County.
If you have never heard of Rancho Guejito, don't feel bad -- few people have ever seen it. The property is big: 36 square miles, or about 21,000 acres, that sprawls in a vast rectangle from behind the Wild Animal Park, near Escondido, northeast to the 4,221-foot peak of Pine Mountain, near the La Jolla Indian Reservation.
Rancho Guejito is the last intact Mexican land grant in California. To stand in the hush of its grasslands is to revisit San Diego's Old West. Along with a token herd of cattle, it is home to golden eagles, mountain lions, deer and pristine stands of Engleman oak trees, along with archaeologically and historically important sites. Eastern industrialist Benjamin Coates bought the property for $10 million in 1974, after the state failed to buy it for a park. He spent 30 years enjoying his property and fighting off environmentalists, airport planners, dump developers and others. But Coates died in 2004. His heirs and partners have been busy since.
Their hand was forced by the county government's General Plan 2020, an unfinished blueprint for growth that could sharply reduce development prospects for the rancho -- and thus the property's market value. So Guejito's owners hired Jim Whalen, a top-tier development consultant who sits on an advisory board to GP2020. Neighbors soon spotted surveyors, prompting the owners' spokesman, Temecula attorney Henry Rupp, to deny that any development was planned. But last week another shoe dropped. The rancho's owners asked Escondido city officials to explore its annexation. This would place the property beyond the reach of county planners.
Rupp will find open arms on Escondido's City Council. Rancho Guejito would double the city's land mass. And Rupp is peddling a vision of a medical research campus to a council that is desperate for high-paying jobs. Of course, annexation is monstrously difficult. And environmentalists are girding for battle. More broadly, Escondido might approve thousands of new homes, miles from roads, power and water supplies. This kind of leap-frog development strains infrastructure and runs afoul of state laws that mandate infill near existing cities. Still, any steps toward development increase Guejito's value -- well into tens of millions of dollars, based on recent deals for the Hearst and Ahmanson ranches.
By far, San Diego County's 3 million people would gain the most from preserving the land. Between state park bonds and environmental funds in the TransNet tax, we have the money. The public should have this jewel, and Coates' heirs can get a fair price.
Waheto as the Payomkowishum knew it.