Despite strong opposition, California has become the first state to adopt a proactive approach to protect imperiled biodiversity amid federal rollbacks. With Governor Newsom's signature on AB 1319, threatened and endangered species in California will stay protected—even if federal safeguards are weakened or eliminated. This is more than just policy; it's a promise to the species that call California home and to the communities that depend on healthy ecosystems.

We’re thrilled to share that on August 28th, the California Wildlife Conservation Board unanimously awarded a $2.7 million grant to support the next phase of ecological restoration at Point Reyes National Seashore—one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, home to more than 100 threatened, rare, and endangered species, and a destination for over two million visitors each year.

The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board has unanimously adopted the 2025 Conditional Waiver of Waste Discharge Requirements for Grazing Operations* in the North San Francisco Bay Region. The updated Conditional Waiver permitting program not only renews existing protections for the Tomales Bay, Sonoma Creek, and Napa River watersheds, it also adds 88,000 acres of grazed lands—extending regulatory oversight to western Point Reyes National Seashore and the Petaluma River watershed for the first time.

Every five years, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board reviews and updates the Conditional Waiver of Waste Discharge Requirements for Grazing Operations in the Tomales Bay Watershed (Grazing Waiver)—a critical policy that protects water quality while supporting sustainable ranching practices.

RRI joined 113 groups opposing Senate amendment to sell 500,000+ acres of public lands in Nevada and Utah, including wilderness areas near Zion Park.

Please join us for Power in Nature’s upcoming webinar, Elk on the North Coast, this Monday, May 19, at 2:00 PM.

Hear from Carrington Hilson, Elk Research Biologist with California Department of Fish & Wildlife, and Chance Cutrano, our Director of Programs and co-lead for Power in Nature’s Bay Area Region.

The public Comment Period for the Tomales Bay Grazing Waiver is now open! The Grazing Waiver is a regulatory program designed to balance sustainable ranching with water quality protection in the North San Francisco Bay region, including Point Reyes National Seashore.

Ranching operations to transition out of Point Reyes by 2026, clearing the way for conservation efforts.

An agreement signed this week by the National Park Service (NPS), environmental groups, and 18 families who have long run cattle and dairy operations at Point Reyes National Seashore ends a decade-long dispute over ranching within the national park.

The proposed Sáttítla National Monument in northeastern California represents a vital opportunity to protect one of the state’s most ecologically, culturally, and hydrologically significant regions. Often called the “headwaters of California,” Sáttítla provides fresh water to millions across the state, supporting wildlife, agriculture, and communities from the highlands to the San Francisco Bay.

For the first time in history, tule elk at Point Reyes National Seashore will roam free as the NPS removes the contentious two-mile-long fence. Learn how thousands of voices and RRI made this historic moment possible!

Point Reyes National Seashore is the only national park where tule elk exist.

In 1978, the NPS reintroduced ten of California’s last surviving tule elk to the National Seashore. Once hailed as a historic conservation victory, the recovering tule elk at Tomales Point have struggled. For decades, scientists forewarned that forage and water were insufficient for the confined herd to thrive. As predicted, hundreds of elk have suffered and died during two historic droughts over the last decade.

For decades misguided park policies have condemned hundreds of tule elk to zoo-like conditions behind an 8-foot fence at the northern end of the Point Reyes peninsula. We now have the opportunity to change the course of elk management at the Seashore.

In April, the California Coastal Commission unanimously rejected the National Park Service’s (NPS) Water Quality Strategy and Climate Action Plan for Point Reyes National Seashore as inadequate and sent the NPS back to the drawing board. This Thursday, September 8, Commissioners will revisit the NPS’s newly submitted plan.

The California Coast Commission unanimously rejected the National Park Service’s “First-Year Water Quality Strategy and Climate Action Plan” for Point Reyes National Seashore. One year ago, the Commission, by one vote, approved a controversial General Management Plan Amendment for the Point Reyes National Seashore on the condition that NPS come up with a “strategy” to fix the water pollution and greenhouse gases spewing from private cattle operations in the national park.

The National Park Service announced that it has initiated a new planning process to address “complex wildlife, resource, and wilderness management issues” at Tomales Point at Point Reyes National Seashore in Northern California. The planning area includes the 2,900-acre Tomales Point Tule Elk Reserve where rare native tule elk, once thought to be extinct, were reintroduced in 1978. Point Reyes is the only national park where tule elk exist.

On January 10th, the RRI and our co-plaintiffs—the Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project—filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Northern District Court in San Francisco challenging the National Park Service’s (NPS) controversial management plan for ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore and the northern district of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which remain among a small handful of national parks where commercial beef and dairy ranching reign.

Despite an urgent report by the United Nation’s International Panel on Climate Change that humanity has a decade to avert climate disaster, the Biden Administration today approved a controversial National Park Service plan for continued commercial ranching at California’s Point Reyes National Seashore, perpetuating the beef and dairy operations at the only national seashore on the Pacific Coast.

Life is getting sticky for the beef and dairy ranchers operating within Point Reyes National Seashore. They’ve taken to blaming their problems on the activists that have effectively stalled what the ranchers clearly thought was a slam dunk for their forever-ranching in this national park.

On Sunday, September 12, park advocates will rally at Point Reyes National Seashore in anticipation of a decision by the Department of the Interior that will determine the future of the national park for decades to come.

The National Park Service has submitted a request for a 60-day extension in order to complete a highly controversial plan for commercial ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore. The General Management Plan Amendment, which would issue 20-year leases to private beef and dairy operations, expand livestock, allow cultivating commercial crops and kill native elk, was to be completed by a court-ordered deadline of July 14, 2021.