Published August 4, 2026 03:08AM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Ninety minutes outside of Los Angeles is a rarity on the Southern California coast: 6,500 acres of undeveloped land. Rancho Ca\u00f1ada Larga is home to cattle, which graze on invasive grasses, but also to native oak woodlands and coastal sage scrub, embattled species like California condors, and a key wildlife corridor. \u201cIt feels like a piece of California that has remained largely untouched,\u201d Guillermo Rodriguez, the state\u2019s director for nonprofit Trust for Public Land<\/a> (TPL), said in a written statement.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not for lack of trying. The ranch has been eyed by developers for a housing project, an oil production field, a landfill, and a golf course. But in December, the TPL protected it with a purchase funded in part by the state of California.<\/p>\n The budget comes from California\u2019s 30\u00d730 goal<\/a>, its effort to conserve 30 percent of its land and coastal waters by 2030. Enshrined in an October 2020 executive order by Governor Gavin Newsom, 30\u00d730 is a nature-based solution to climate change: Research says that conserving 30 percent of the world\u2019s land and water can combat not just species loss but the effects of global warming, as biodiverse landscapes better sequester carbon, protect from extreme heat, and absorb rainwater to reduce flooding severity. It\u2019s also part of California\u2019s overall goal to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.<\/p>\n California is the fourth-largest economy in the world and the most populated and biodiverse state. \u201cIt matters what California does,\u201d says Katelyn Roedner Sutter, state director for the Environmental Defense Fund.<\/a> This has always been true, but only more so as the current Trump administration reverses America\u2019s course on climate and environmental action. California is now America\u2019s most ambitious environmental experiment. \u201cThe state now represents a sense of promise, that the urgency on climate change hasn\u2019t diminished just because the federal administration no longer cares about it,\u201d says Alex Jackson, California executive director of the trade association American Clean Power.<\/a><\/p>\n For readers awash in mostly bad news about the environment, California\u2019s progress can inspire a double take. The state has already met its 2030 clean-energy target, with two-thirds of its electric grid powered by renewable energy. In just three years, the state has added roughly 2.5 million additional acres of conserved land. Many of these projects, like the new S\u00e1tt\u00edtla Highlands and Chuckwalla national monuments, also expand outdoor access. In all, the state has grown its ratio of conserved land from 24 to 26.1 percent, and coastal waters from 16 to 21.9 percent.<\/p>\n The state has also made solid progress toward balancing its clean-energy and conservation goals\u2014aims that have come into conflict in the past, as when environmentalists protested wind and solar developments in sensitive portions of the Mojave Desert. Under the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan<\/a>, the state incentivized developers to place wind and solar projects in areas with fewer environmental concerns, where projects could be permitted up to 2.5 times faster, according to a 2019 study by the Nature Conservancy.<\/a> Wind and solar development has increased by 28 percent<\/a> in the desert since, while protecting habitat for species like the desert tortoise.<\/p>\n The next phase, however, will be harder. To meet 30\u00d730, the state will need to conserve nearly 800,000 acres of land a year for the next five years. \u201cThe scale of conservation ahead of us is daunting,\u201d California Natural Resources Agency<\/a> secretary Wade Crowfoot acknowledges. Likewise, meeting the state\u2019s clean-energy goals will require \u201cjust an unprecedented scale of building projects every single year for the next 20 years,\u201d says Erica Brand, associate director of the Nature Conservancy\u2019s California climate program. Trump has already begun obstructing these efforts, sunsetting federal tax credits that drove solar and wind developments and revoking a waiver that enabled California to set its own vehicle emissions standard. (The state has sued the federal government.)<\/p>\n But one of the biggest disruptions to California\u2019s ongoing environmental efforts will happen in November, when Newsom reaches his two-term limit. Continuity of the mission will be crucial, says Sierra Club California<\/a> director Miguel Miguel: \u201cEnvironmentally, we cannot continue to reinvent the wheel with every changing leader. We have to pass the baton.\u201d<\/p>\n California\u2019s politics (and its politicians) are polarizing, and the environmentalists I spoke to were measured in their praise of the state\u2019s achievements. Critics of California\u2019s environmental policies say they have contributed to the state\u2019s affordability and housing issues, but environmentalists have also criticized what they see as recent backpedaling<\/a> from Newsom and Democratic legislators in attempts to correct some of these issues, such as a bill passed last year to help control gas prices by making it easier to drill for oil in Kern County. Some, like Sutter, are concerned about the state legislature\u2019s creation of what she called \u201cmassive exemptions\u201d to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)\u2014which mandates environmental reviews and mitigation for new projects\u2014in order to speed housing, clean-energy, and other developments.<\/p>\n Crowfoot, in response, says that meeting the state\u2019s clean-energy goals requires a paradigm shift in environmentalist thinking, including the reform of laws like CEQA. \u201cThe environmental community needs to learn to say yes,\u201d he says, referencing an idea from Bill McKibben. Regulations remain important, but \u201cin order to effectively confront climate change, we need to rapidly move to 100 percent clean energy. In California, if we can do that, quickly and reliably, safely and affordably, we prove to the world that it can be done. \u2026 And<\/i> we need to protect our biodiversity. We need to find a way to do both.\u201d<\/p>\n Being on the leading edge has its trade-offs, Miguel says. Sometimes the state\u2019s experimentation works. \u201cAnd sometimes it doesn\u2019t.\u201d And in a world where smoke from Canadian wildfires can blanket New York City<\/a> and climate change could one day reduce the number of outdoor recreation days in the Southeast by up to 25 percent<\/a>, whatever happens in California has ramifications far beyond the West Coast. The state\u2019s climate policies have directly influenced those in D.C. and abroad\u2014China\u2019s electric-vehicles mandate was a result of a relationship with Sacramento\u2014and the state has also proven that it can keep America moving toward clean energy, even when the federal government pulls back.<\/p>\n \u201cYou often hear that the world is watching what California is doing,\u201d says Jackson. \u201cThat\u2019s not overstated. California can show what a large, diverse economy can look like as it decarbonizes. Will it continue to be an engine of success and prosperity? Or will it be a cautionary tale?\u201d<\/p>\n This article is from the Summer 2026 issue of Outside magazine. To receive the print magazine, become an Outside+ member here<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n