Ventana Wilderness

Ventana Wilderness
IUCN category Ib (wilderness area)
Location	Los Padres National Forest, Monterey County, California, United States
Nearest city	Monterey, California
Coordinates	36°15′0″N 121°40′0″W / 36.25000°N 121.66667°W / 36.25000; -121.66667
Area	240,026 acres (97,135 ha)
Established	August 18, 1969
Governing body	U.S. Forest Service / Bureau of Land Management

The Ventana Wilderness of Los Padres National Forest is a federally designated wilderness area located in the Santa Lucia Range along the Central Coast of California. This wilderness was established in 1969 when the Ventana Wilderness Act redesignated the 55,800-acre (22,600 ha) Ventana Primitive Area as the Ventana Wilderness and added land, totalling 98,000 acres (40,000 hectares). In 1978, the Endangered American Wilderness Act added 61,000 acres (25,000 hectares), increasing the total wilderness area to about 159,000 acres (64,000 hectares). The California Wilderness Act of 1984 added about 2,750 acres (1,110 hectares). The Los Padres Condor Range and River Protection Act of 1992 created the approximately 14,500-acre (5,900 ha) Silver Peak Wilderness and added about 38,800 acres (15,700 hectares) to the Ventana Wilderness in addition to designating the Big Sur River as a Wild and Scenic River. The Big Sur Wilderness and Conservation Act of 2002 expanded the wilderness for the fifth time, adding nearly 35,000 acres (14,000 ha), increasing the total acreage of the wilderness to its present size of 240,026 acres (97,135 ha).^[1]