RRI Newsroom

RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein

Elk On The North Coast — Webinar

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.

Read More
RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein

Settlement Reached in Long-Standing Dispute Over Ranching at 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.

Read More
RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein

Don’t Fence Me In!

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.

Read More
RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein

September: Recap of California Coastal Commission Decision on Point Reyes Water and Climate Plan

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.

Read More
RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein

April: Recap of California Coastal Commission Decision on Point Reyes Water and Climate 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.

Read More
RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein

Conservationists Demand End to Elk Confinement Under Tomales Point Area Plan

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.

Read More
RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein

“To Conserve Unimpaired” Lawsuit Challenges Point Reyes Ranching, Elk-Killing Plan

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.

Read More
RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein

National Park Service Folds: Ranching Reigns at Point Reyes National Seashore

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.

Read More
RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein

Investigations into Lease Violations Pile Up on the Eve of the Decision for Ranchings’ Future at Point Reyes National Seashore

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.

Read More
RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein

Controversial NPS Ranching Plan for Point Reyes Seashore Delayed

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.

Read More
Grace Milstein Grace Milstein

You have to do what is right

One year ago, the environmental movement lost Huey Johnson. Huey’s 60-year career as an environmental leader and innovator, his integrity and his persistence left a tremendous legacy and stand as a guidepost for getting things done for the environment. At Resource Renewal Institute (RRI), the nonprofit Huey founded in Marin 35 years ago, his spirit and lessons are an ongoing source of inspiration. Sorting through some old files I came upon a letter from former Governor Jerry Brown, who appointed Huey as California’s Secretary of Natural Resources. In it, Brown quotes Huey who, he says, imparted to him an important political lesson, “When it comes to the environment, it’s not enough to do what works–you have to do what is right”.

Read More
RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein

Turning up the Heat on the National Park Service

The NPS’s General Management Plan Amendment for Point Reyes Seashore awaits Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s signature. The controversial plan will instate ranching for least 20 more years, add hundreds more commercial livestock, and condemns native Tule elk to death in an effort to shore up the distressed ranches. As the deadline approaches, resistance to the plan is gaining momentum. Here are recent highlights:

Read More
RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein

On World Environment Day: A Vision for a Restored Point Reyes National Seashore?

Today, June 5, is World Environment Day and official launch of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration— a rallying cry to reverse the degradation of our planet and help Nature heal. 
At RRI, we’re reminded of our beloved colleague, Professor Wangari Maathai, (1940-2011), founder of the Greenbelt Movement of Kenya. As a scientist, a government critic, and an environmental activist, Wangari endured gender bias and persecution by those in power. And yet, she persisted—planting more than 51 million trees in Kenya, restoring forests and improving the lives of rural women across Africa. 

Read More
RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein

California Coastal Commission votes 5-to-4 to approve controversial ranching plan for Point Reyes National Seashore--with conditions

The California Coastal Commission narrowly approved the consistency determination regarding the National Park Service (NPS) plans for ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore.  The Commissioner approved, by 5-4 vote the conditional concurrence recommended by Commission staff with additional amendments. Three additional amendments were unanimously adopted by the Commissioners.  

Read More
RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein

Conservation Groups Petition Park Service to Tear Down Elk Fence at Point Reyes

Citing an ongoing die-off of rare Tule elk at the Tomales Point Elk Reserve on Point Reyes National Seashore, conservation and animal advocacy groups today filed a formal petition with the National Park Service to remove an eight- foot-tall fence that confines the park’s main elk herd to a narrow peninsula that lacks adequate water and forage during droughts.

Read More
RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein

Elk Deaths Mount at Point Reyes National Seashore - Cause of Death: Politics sent

The National Park Service (NPS) has issued a press release revealing that 152 Tule elk, one-third of the Tomales Point herd, died at Point Reyes National Seashore.  The deaths occurred because elk were trapped behind an 8-foot fence that encloses the park’s Tule Elk Reserve, where the NPS confines the rare elk to keep them off parklands reserved for cattle.

Read More
RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein RESTORE POINT REYES Grace Milstein

David Stares. Goliath Blinks: NPS Postpones State Review of Pt Reyes Ranching

A week before its public hearing before the California Coastal Commission, the National Park Service (NPS) withdrew its application seeking Commission approval for a controversial General Management Plan Amendment (GMPA) for ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation. The hearing has not been rescheduled.

Read More