Launch the Imagining California photo slideshow! Get Out on the Land Learn how you can visit these, and other beautiful places around California first-hand by visiting Get Out on the Land.

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California’s natural beauty has long inspired dreamers and doers, from America’s early pioneers to today’s conservationists. In fact, the Golden State's landscapes and seascapes are so stunning that people travel from around the world just to marvel at them.

These exquisite places are also home to unparalleled plant and animal diversity. They fuel the farms, fisheries and forests that help make California the seventh-largest economy in the world and provide Californians with clean air and water.

California's Ecological Treasures

• Greatest diversity of natural areas among the 50 states
• 1,500 unique species found nowhere else on Earth
• More at-risk native species than any other state
• 1,200 miles of coastline

Since 1959 The Nature Conservancy has safeguarded more than 1.2 million acres of California's precious lands and waters. But there is much more to be done, and we can't do it alone. We seek those who believe that working together, grounded in science, we can save California's last great places.

For a bird’s eye view of these special places, view the slideshow and join the Great Places network today.

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Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Richard Herrmann (Las Californias); Photo © Richard Herrmann (anemone); Photo © Kip Evans (Santa Barbara coast); Photo © Darin Busby (hiker at Carrizo Plain).