Imagine eight miles of pristine Pacific coastline, mountain lions roaming beaches that are occupied by seals, and land spared the subdivisions and bulldozers that have reshaped most of the rest of the coast, all located in the state that is one of the hungriest for real estate development in America. Imagine, then, two technology billionaires donating $165 million to ensure it stays untouched forever. This is not the plot of some fantasy movie. This is exactly what happened in December 2017, when Jack and Laura Dangermond, founders of Esri, the world's leading mapping software company, made the biggest donation in the history of The Nature Conservancy to conserve the 24,364 acres of land in the Gaviota Coast, near Point Conception in Santa Barbara County, California.
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