We are very pleased to report that in July of this year, the
Conservancy was donated its first parcel of property! We are now a land owner! This generous donation was made by the
Panofsky family, and we would like to especially like to thank Mrs. Adele
Panofsky and her sister Andree Wilson, the owners of the property, and Mrs.
Panofsky’s son Steven and his wife Susan for facilitating to the donation.
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L-R: Laura Pavliscak (Conservancy Stewardship
Manager), Steven Panofsky, Adele (DuMond) Panofsky, Susan Panofsky, and Scot
Pipkin (Conservancy Public Access Manager) following a spring picnic at the
property.
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The
20-acre property is located at the northern edge of Tejon Ranch, outside of the
town of Caliente, California. It sits in
the Caliente Creek channel and floodplain supporting mature Fremont cottonwood
(Populus fremontii) and willow (Salix spp) riparian vegetation with
bladderpod (Peritoma arborea) and
scalebroom (Lepidospartum squamatum)
in the adjacent uplands. The Conservancy
has also documented new patches of the federally and state listed Endangered
Bakersfield cactus (Opuntia basilaris
treleasei) on the property, and have documented San Joaquin coachwhip (Coluber flagellum ruddockii), a
California Species of Special Concern, in the vicinity of the property.
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| Panofsky property, looking east. |
The Panofsky property lies between the Tejon Ranch boundary
and the Southern Pacific Railroad right-of-way.
On the other side of the Southern Pacific right-of-way lies the
Tollhouse (Rudnick) Ranch currently owned by The Nature Conservancy. Thus, the Panofsky property incrementally
contributes to landscape connectivity in the region by connecting Tejon Ranch
to other conserved properties. The Tehachapi Pass where the property is located
is also a unique biogeographic setting.
The Pass cuts through the Tehachapi Mountains and Southern Sierra Nevada
foothills to connect the Great Central Valley ecological region with the Mojave
Desert, and is therefore an important transition area and point of contact
between closely related species.
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| Location of the Panofsky property. |
The property also has an interesting history. It came into the family in 1916 when it was
purchased from John Ripley by Frederick Melville DuMond (1887-1927), the
maternal grandfather of Adele and Andree.
Frederick was a Paris-trained painter with a reputation as an adventurer
and romantic, who ultimately became known for his Mojave Desert landscapes. Frederick purchased the property for $10 with
the idea of running sheep on it. He
never grazed sheep on the property but it was used by subsequent generations of
the Panofsky family as a picnic and camping site. Adele Panofsky wanted to see this property
conserved as a “preserve” and the Panofsky’s made contact with the Conservancy
to see if we could help.
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Frederick
Melville DuMond as painted by his daughter Camille in 1907
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We
are extremely fortunate that folks like the Panofsky’s want to conserve properties
such as this and trust the Conservancy to help them achieve this goal. We are
very happy that the Panofsky family is now part of our Conservancy family, and
we are committed to ensuring that the legacy of this property is permanently
protected and stewarded. From all of the
Conservancy staff, Board, volunteers, and other partners − Thank you!!
