Scott McManus - Secretary

Scott McManus - Secretary

Scotty first came to Cayucos in the late 1980s, drawn by the wind and the water. He was a windsurfer then, and the Estero Bay coastline made an impression that never faded — uncrowded, unhurried, and framed by open hills rather than rooftops. Nearly four decades later he is still on the water, these days riding a hydrofoil, and still convinced that what makes Cayucos rare is as much the land behind the beach as the ocean in front of it.

Scotty built his career in finance as a Certified Public Accountant and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional. Midway through, he stepped away from the office for seven years to manage a 52,000-acre sheep and cattle ranch in central Oregon — running livestock, water, and rangeland across a piece of country larger than the city of San Luis Obispo. The experience left him with a working appreciation for what open land actually requires: patient stewardship, sound planning, and the economics that ultimately determine whether it stays open at all.

That pairing — financial discipline and hands-on land management — is what Scotty brings to the Cayucos Land Conservancy. He is especially committed to preserving public access to the ocean, believing that land held in trust matters most when people can walk it, and that a town keeps its character only as long as its shoreline and hillsides remain open to everyone. He is honored to help steward the Cayucos greenbelt for the generations still to find this place the way he did.