San Luis Obispo County, officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo.
Pismo Beach is a city in the southern portion of San Luis Obispo County, in the Central Coast area of California, United States. Its estimated population was 8,072 at the 2020 census, up from 7,655 in the 2010 census. It is part of the Five Cities area, a cluster of cities in that area. The Five Cities area historically is made up of Arroyo Grande, Grover City, Halcyon, Fair Oaks, and Nipomo. Now most people refer to the Five Cities as Grover Beach, Pismo Beach, Shell Beach, Arroyo Grande, and Oceano.
California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest in the California State University system (CSU). The university is one of the largest in the state of California by enrollment with a student body numbering 38,273 for the fall 2022 semester. With 5,562 graduate students as of fall 2022, the university enrolls one of the largest graduate student populations across the CSU system and in the state of California. CSULB is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High Research Activity," reflecting the university's evolution from a master's-level comprehensive university to one that awards doctorate degrees.
The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA), and in 1988 was renamed the Big West Conference. The conference stopped sponsoring college football after the 2000 season.
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo is a public university in San Luis Obispo County, adjacent to the city of San Luis Obispo. It is the oldest of three polytechnics in the California State University system.
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, is a public polytechnic university and Hispanic-serving institution partially in Pomona, California. It has the largest student body of the three polytechnic universities in the California State University system.
California State University, Fullerton is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the California State University (CSU) system, and its graduate student body of more than 5,000 is one of the largest in the CSU and in all of California. As of fall 2016, the school had 2,083 faculty, of whom 782 were on the tenure track. The university offers 109 degree programs: 55 undergraduate degrees and 54 graduate degrees, including three doctorates.
Alpha Gamma Omega was founded in 1927 at UCLA as a Christ-centered fraternity. Alpha Gamma Omega now has chapters at universities in California, Colorado, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. It maintains a close relationship with its Christian sorority counterpart, Alpha Delta Chi, considered the fraternity's "sister sorority."
Natural Bridges State Beach is a 65-acre (26 ha) California state park in Santa Cruz, California, in the United States. The park features a natural bridge across a section of the beach. It is also well known as a hotspot to see monarch butterfly migrations. The Monarch Butterfly Natural Preserve is home to up to 150,000 monarch butterflies from October through early February.
Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes is the largest remaining dune system south of San Francisco and the second largest in the U.S. state of California. It encompasses an 18-mile (29 km) stretch of coastline on the Central Coast of California and extends from southern San Luis Obispo County to northern Santa Barbara County.
The Robert A. Mott Athletics Center is a 3,032-seat, indoor multi-purpose arena on the campus of California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California.
Lopez Lake is a reservoir near the city of Arroyo Grande in San Luis Obispo County, California. The lake is formed by Lopez Dam on Arroyo Grande Creek, 9 mi (14 km) upstream from the Pacific Ocean. The creek drains about 60 sq mi (160 km2) above the dam and 90 sq mi (230 km2) below. The dam was built in 1969 and is operated by the San Luis Obispo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District. The earth-fill dam was retrofitted to protect against earthquakes between 2001 and 2003. The winter of 2022-2023 brought the reservoir to the capacity of 49,200 acre-feet (60,700,000 m3). In March 2023 the lake overflowed into the spillway for the first time since 1998, some 25 years prior.
The Lucia Mar Unified School District (LMUSD) is the largest school district in San Luis Obispo County, with about 10,700 students. It covers 550 square miles (1,400 km2) at the southern end of the county, from Shell Beach to the county line at the Santa Maria River. This territory encompasses the communities of Shell Beach, Pismo Beach, Grover Beach, Arroyo Grande, Oceano, Halcyon, and Nipomo.
Natural Bridges State Marine Reserve (SMR) is a marine protected area located at the northern edge of Santa Cruz, California, approximately 75 miles (121 km) south of San Francisco. The SMR covers 0.58 square miles (1.5 km2). The SMR protects all marine life within its boundaries. Fishing or other removal of any living marine resource is prohibited.
Long Beach State athletics, or simply Beach athletics, are the athletic teams that represent California State University, Long Beach. Teams compete in 19 sports at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level. Long Beach State is a founding member of the Big West Conference, and also competes in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and the Golden Coast Conference for sports not sponsored by the Big West.
Lovers Point State Marine Reserve (SMR) is one of four small marine protected areas located near the cities of Monterey and Pacific Grove, at the southern end of Monterey Bay on California’s central coast. The four MPAs together encompass 2.96 square miles (7.7 km2). The SMR protects all marine life within its boundaries. Fishing and take of all living marine resources is prohibited.
Pacific Grove Marine Gardens State Marine Conservation Area is one of four small marine protected areas located near the cities of Monterey and Pacific Grove, at the southern end of Monterey Bay on California’s central coast. The four MPAs together encompass 2.96 square miles (7.7 km2). Within the SMCA fishing and take of all living marine resources is prohibited except the recreational take of finfish and the commercial take of giant and bull kelp by hand under certain conditions. According to the Frommer's guide, the Marine Gardens area is "renowned for ocean views, flowers, and tide-pool seaweed beds."
The Cal Poly Mustangs are the athletic teams representing California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. The university fields twenty-one teams and compete in NCAA Division I; they are primarily members of the Big West Conference, but the football team plays in the Big Sky Conference, the wrestling team is an associate member of the Pac-12 Conference, and the swimming and diving program competes as an affiliate member in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
The U.S. state of California has instituted numerous conservation programs, policies, laws, reserves and Habitat restoration projects throughout the state to facilitate the health and migration of the western population of the monarch butterfly. The population of western monarchs require very different breeding and overwintering habitat when compared to the eastern population of monarch butterflies. They require specific micro-climatic conditions to survive the winter and they are sensitive to habitat changes at the overwintering sites. The large aggregations of butterflies are seen as the most vulnerable at their overwintering locations along the coast. Many monarch overwintering sites are contained within the "coastal zone"; an area defined by the Coastal Zone Management Act to be 1000 yards inland from the high tide mark. Large number of overwintering sites are outside the coastal zone. There are more than 450 overwintering sites in California.
