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.

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.

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”.

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:

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.