Drought, Wildfire, Fences Threaten Tule Elk at Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo credit: Matthew Polvorosa Kline

Record heat, severe drought conditions and wildfires raging out of control at Point Reyes National Seashore are raising concerns for the survival of the Seashore’s iconic Tule elk, a species found in no other national park.
 
Point Reyes National Seashore is the site of a decades-long, successful recovery program for this unique subspecies of elk, endemic to California. Some 600 Tule elk now live in the park. The largest herd, about 400 elk, are kept behind an 8-foot fence at the Tomales Elk Reserve.  Last week, visitors to the reserve notified the National Park Service (NPS) that the ponds that supply drinking water to the confined elk had gone dry.
 
This is cause for concern because in 2016, the NPS belatedly disclosed that half of the confined herd had died during the 2012-2015 drought. By contrast, two small, free-roaming elk herds at Drakes and Limantour beaches with unrestricted access to water and forage  increased in number during the same period.

The NPS’s policy is to not intervene when wildlife lack for water or food, despite the fact that the Tule elk, iconic symbol of the park, are captive and prevented from foraging outside the reserve.

The NPS claimed the elk population crash was a normal adaptation to limited resources, but after public outcry pledged to truck in supplemental water for the confined elk when the ponds go dry. Six elk carcasses were discovered in the reserve in the last three weeks.

Tule elk carcass. Photo credit: Matthew Polvorosa Kline

Point Reyes, the only National Seashore on the Pacific Coast, is one of a handful of National Park units that permit cattle grazing. About 6,000 beef and dairy cattle graze on 18,000 acres of the park year-round. Cattle outnumber the native elk at Point Reyes by 10 to 1. No cattle were reported to have died at the Seashore during same drought that halved the fenced-in elk herd.

Dry pond, Tomales elk Preserve. Photo credit: Matthew Polvorosa Kline

Insufficient water at the Tomales Elk Reserve was anticipated in the Seashore’s 1998 Tule Elk Management Plan/Environmental Assessment, which noted there are no year-round streams in the 2,000-acre enclosure where the park’s largest elk herd is held. The elk survive on limited water, including former cattle ponds, seeps and condensation from coastal fog.  In the 1998 elk plan, the NPS rejected the idea of creating additional water impoundments (see p.12). A stated goal of the 1998 elk plan is “provide for a free-ranging Tule elk herd….by 2005.”

The elk die-off led environmentalists to sue the NPS, citing the preference given ranching over wildlife and lack of any environmental impact analyses for the Seashore’s 24 tenant ranches. A settlement agreement in 2017 required the NPS to conduct the first-ever environmental review of the Seashore ranches and allow public comment before extending the 20-year leases as the ranchers demand. The NPS's final Environmental Impact Statement and General Management Plan Amendment (GMPA) for ranching are expected to be released this summer.
 
“The elk fence is symbolic of what’s happening at Point Reyes Seashore,” said Chance Cutrano, Director of Special Programs at the Resource Renewal Institute.“These are wild elk in a national park whose habitat has been given over to cattle. More than 90 percent of public comments to the NPS’s proposed plan called upon the Park Service to end ranching and restore the park. Taking down the fence is an essential step to fulfill the promise of what our Seashore was intended to be.”
 
Point Reyes is a national park, not a zoo,” said Jeff Miller, Senior Conservation Advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Native wildlife should not continue to be confined due to the demands of a handful of commercial ranching operations. The Park Service should tear down the elk fence and allow the elk in the national seashore to find adequate water to during droughts and thrive.”

These are difficult times for California wildlife. Hundreds of fires are burning around the state, as firefighters and public agencies, including the National Park Service, struggle to contain them. We are grateful for their efforts in these trying times.  

Drought conditions and wildfire are existential threats to the Tule elk. Fewer than 6,000 of the elk exist statewide. The NPS claims to be monitoring the conditions at the Seashore and to have a contingency plan to provide water to the elk reserve should it become necessary. We and other park and wildlife advocates continue to keep an eye on the situation. We will keep our readers informed. 
 
For NPS updates on the elk situation at Point Reyes Seashore: nps.gov/pore/learn/nature/tule_elk.htm

For background on Tule elk management plan at the Seashore:
nps.gov/pore/learn/management/upload/planning_tule_elk_mp_ea_1998.pdf