RRI joined forces with over 20 organizations and businesses in submitting a public comment to the California Fish and Game Commission, urging them to implement robust measures to reduce bycatch and mortality in the Southern California set gillnet fishery.

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.

On May 9, 2024, the Resource Renewal Institute joined over 100 environmental organizations urging Governor Newsom’s administration to proceed with funding the projects scheduled for the May 23rd Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) meeting despite potential budget cuts.

On May 6th, 2024, the Resource Renewal Institute (RRI) and over 400 organizations signed an open letter urging President Biden to declare a national climate emergency and take swift, transformative action to address the climate crisis.

RRI recently launched our inaugural marine biodiversity protection project, The 64% Solution: The Campaign to End Avoidable Bycatch, an initiative to protect the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary from set gillnet fishing.

We loved seeing you at the third annual Huey Johnson Legacy Walk. Thank you for being part of this wonderful tradition. Brilliant blue skies welcomed us back to Tennessee Valley on January 7 to remember and honor Huey Johnson on what would have been the day after his 91st birthday. 

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.

The Resource Renewal Institute joins over 600 organizations in endorsing the March to End Fossil Fuels, which is taking place ahead of the UN Climate Ambition Summit.

In December, Resource Renewal Institute (RRI) lost a wonderful friend and a colleague whose work will have a lasting impact on our organization. Lynn Alexander was a multi-faceted person who often surprised us with her wide range of talents and interests. As a director of large, complex projects for RRI, she was an organizational expert and accomplished leader who brought out the best in all of us.

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.

I’m writing to update you on Fish in the Fields (FIF) and the important progress we’ve been making in 2022. Our work to drive greater sustainability into two essential crops, rice and fish, continues to gain momentum and participation among key stakeholders in California and across the country.

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.

In early December, Resource Renewal Institute (RRI) president Deborah Moskowitz and Director of Programs Chance Cutrano spent a busy and productive three days at the USA Rice Federation (USARice) 2021 Outlook Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

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”.