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.

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.

It’s no secret that the Trump Administration is fast-tracking leases for drilling, logging, mining, and grazing on Americans’ public lands. The plan to extend ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore is no exception. Trump’s Department of Interior is intent on having the Record of Decision for this damaging plan signed, sealed and delivered before January 20, 2021. A final step in the process is the California Coastal Commission’s decision as to whether the National Park Service’s (NPS) plan for the Seashore is “consistent” with State laws protecting the coast.

As the Trump Administration continues to shuffle National Park Service personnel, Craig Kenkel has been named the Superintendent at Point Reyes National Seashore, replacing Superintendent Cecily Muldoon and a parade of Acting Superintendents.

Big thanks to all who submitted comments to the Draft Plan for Ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore! The NPS says it received 7,600 public comments to the plan!  This doesn’t include 700 comments that it refused to count collected by ForElk activists who spent months educating folks at farmers markets, film screenings, street fairs, and from their pop-up display outside the Point Reyes Visitor Center. Under the Trump administration censorship has become a growing trend in our government, including at the National Park Service.

The NPS has announced it final plan for Point Reyes National Seashore. The plan includes:

• Killing native Tule elk to support cattle ranchers

• Allowing more livestock in the Seashore

• Installing a 4-mile fence to keep elk off parklands leased for cattle

• Converting grasslands to commercial crops

• The public pays the bill

Resource Renewal Institute is proud to present our new film about Point Reyes National Seashore (8 minutes). Confined by a fence, Tule elk at Point Reyes National Seashore are in mortal danger as their water sources dry up. Half the herd died during the 2014-2016 drought. The park’s biologist referred to the die off as “letting nature take its course.” There’s nothing natural about denying water to confined animals. The just-released management plan (described below) calls for shooting wild elk to ensure enough grass for the nearly 6,000 cattle that graze the park.

As a boy I was witness, a fly on the wall, to the creation of Point Reyes National Seashore. Through the prolonged labor that preceded the birth of this extraordinary park, I became acquainted with the cast of characters who fought to bring it into existence—the first, and still the only—national seashore on the West Coast.

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.

In comments to the NPS’s draft plan for ranching at the Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) the Resource Renewal Institute and Western Watershed Project raised concerns about the public health risks of Johne’s Disease, a contagious and chronic intestinal disease that afflicts cattle—particularly dairy cows.  Other ruminants, domestic and wild—deer, sheep, goats, antelopes, elk—also are susceptible.

Ranchers and politicians have long claimed that there is overwhelming public support for ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore and GGNRA, but have never offered any evidence to support their claim. The 7,627 public comments to the National Park Service’s (NPS) draft General Management Plan Amendment (GMPA) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for ranching in these parks say otherwise.
 
More than 90 percent of the comments submitted to the NPS oppose ranching.

While the Bay Area has been quarantined over the coronavirus, activists in Northern California have been analyzing thousands of public comments sent to the National Park Service (NPS) in response to its controversial draft plan for cattle grazing at Point Reyes National Seashore. Their analysis reveals that more than 90 percent of the 7,627 comments submitted to the NPS oppose ranching in the national seashore. The final NPS plan—expected out this spring—will determine the future of ranching and wildlife in this national park for decades to come.

Driven to near extinction, northern elephant seals have made a remarkable comeback— from as few as 100 in the 1920s to about 124,000 in California today. The seals give birth at Point Reyes National Seashore, where the National Park Service goes to great lengths to protect them from human disturbance. If only the Park Service would show such concern for the Seashore’s other rare wildlife, like the park’s iconic Tule elk.

Your comments are needed to the National Park Service’s (NPS) Draft General Management Plan Amendment for our national seashore. Under the plan, fully one-third of Point Reyes National Seashore will be dedicated to cattle ranching for decades to come. The NPS’s own Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) enumerates the impacts of cattle ranching to endangered species, wildlife habitat, water quality, and the climate, but ignores these impacts to satisfy 24 ranchers who sold their land to the public nearly 60 years ago and still run their cattle in this national park.

Ranches and cattle grazing comprise one-third of the Seashore’s 71,000 acres. Congress established Point Reyes National Seashore in 1962 “to save and preserve, for the purposes of public recreation, benefit, and inspiration, a portion of the diminishing seashore of the United States that remains undeveloped.” The ranchers were well compensated for their land and it was agreed that they could remain in the park for their lifetime or 25 years. They never left.

At California’s magnificent Point Reyes National Seashore, the Park Service is about to approve the expansion of dairy and beef ranching for decades to come—and killing any native Tule elk that get in the way. Congress established Point Reyes National Seashore to protect a uniquely beautiful wild place for the enjoyment of the American people. The Seashore was not created to reward private ranchers with never-ending below-market leases that endanger the park’s fragile environment.

Your comments are critical to the NPS’s Draft Plan for cattle ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore. Dairy and beef cattle ranching has a long history at Pt. Reyes. When the Seashore was established in 1962 there was opposition from the ranching families, but they eventually agreed to a buyout-leaseback arrangement with the National Park Service. The ranchers were generously compensated for their land (more than $300 million in today’s dollars), and it was agreed that they could remain in park for their lifetime or 25 years. 

The National Park Service (NPS) has released its Draft General Management Plan (GMPA) and Environmental Impacts Statement (EIS) for ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore. This is the first time in the park’s history that ranching has been subjected to a full review of its environmental impacts, and the first time the public has had an opportunity to submit comments to the park’s ranching policy. The public has until September 23 to send comments.

The National Park Service (NPS) at Point Reyes National Seashore says it plans to release its Draft General Management Plan Amendment (GMPA) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the impacts of commercial ranching at the National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) in August. The public will have 45 days to comment on the way the National Seashore should be managed going forward.

Event organizers reached out to us about publicizing the Mindful Eating Film Festival and Expo after the posters they put up around the county were torn down. Some ranchers strongly objected to the event and screening such films as “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret,” and "The Shame of Point Reyes” which are critical of ranching. In response, organizers have invited Seashore ranchers to participate on a panel with the filmmakers to discuss the issues raised in the films.