Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes National Wildlife Refuge

The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge) is located along the central Coast of California within the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Complex, an 18-mile-long coastal dunes landscape that occupies approximately 20,000 acres of southwestern San Luis Obispo County and northwestern Santa Barbara County. The Dunes Complex is one of the largest coastal dune landscapes along the west coast of North America and provides habitat for a variety of state and federally listed plant and animal species. This dune complex is recognized as a National Natural Landmark and contains some of the most remote and least disturbed habitats in the dunes complex.

The Refuge landscape consists of coastal strand and active dunes, central coast foredunes, central coast dune scrub, active interior dunes, coastal dune swale, coastal dune freshwater marshes and ponds, and coastal dune riparian woodland. 

The 2,553-acre Refuge was established in 2000 as a satellite of the Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Complex, a branch of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is headquartered in Ventura, California. The Refuge was created to conserve central California coastal dune and associated wetlands habitats and support the recovery of native plants and animals that are federally listed as threatened or endangered. At the time of the initial acquisition, interim management goals were developed for the Refuge. These interim management goals, which follow, have been the management priorities on the Refuge since its establishment in 2000:

• Protect, restore, and enhance native habitats to aid in the recovery of federally listed species (those species federally designated as threatened and/or endangered) and designated critical habitats on the Refuge.
• Protect, manage, and restore coastal dune habitats representative of the biodiversity in the central California coast area.
• Establish and maintain conservation partnerships and provide assistance for natural resource and land management activities with federal, state, tribal, and local governments and agencies, and with academic institutions and private conservation organizations.