Point Reyes National Seashore is proposing to take down the fence trapping tule elk within the Tomales Point peninsula. Second comment period closed June 5, 2024. Follow along
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A National Seashore that truly honors the history of the Coast Miwok in Point Reyes, preserving important cultural and historic sites, as well as taking care to respect and encourage indigenous participation. We listen to Indigenous voices and help make a better future.
The preservation, stewardship, and restoration of the entire Coastal Prairie Ecosystem where wildlife can flourish and be undisturbed and unpolluted by the extractive commercial ranching found across Marin County.
A National Seashore that works to attract a wider variety of people, while protecting the ecology and is accessible to low income communities from the Bay Area and protected for use by the countless generations to come
Point Reyes will become a component of the 30 by 30 plan and function as an important Carbon Sink on the West Coast as it's our ONLY National Seashore on this side of the Continental U.S.
Disregarding climate change, science and more than 7,600 comments from the public, the NPS has released its final General Management Plan Amendment for ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore. The plan extends 20-year leases to the 24 ranchers grazing cattle in the National Seashore, allows livestock diversification, and calls for the killing of native Tule elk.
Kehoe Lagoon seethes with 300 times the acceptable amount of Enterococcus, E. Coli's nasty bacterial cousin. Public records show that Park Service administrators and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board have long known that astronomically high levels of micro-organisms flow directly from livestock into the Park’s recreational and fishing waters. And these agencies have done nothing to effectively eliminate the source of the potentially lethal bacterial invasions.
The National Park Service preferred alternative includes removal of the tule elk fence and all temporary water systems installed during the most recent drought. Public and stakeholder engagement have been important to the development and refinement of this plan and the preferred alternative.
The National Park Service is failing to recover fair market value on the leases for beef and dairy ranches at Point Reyes National Seashore, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which claims taxpayers are losing millions of dollars on the operations.
The advocacy group maintains that federal law and NPS policy requires the agency to require fair market value on the leases for the operations, yet it is charging “only a fraction of that amount.”
From the conclusion: "Having a serious conversation about the PRNS and whom it belongs to and what its purpose should mean acknowledging that the ethical framework which has governed American society since its inception is fundamentally flawed, and that the system of land and labor management must be scrutinized. This is a conversation that is not up to the NPS, but with activists suing them in multiple states simultaneously, it is likely to be a conversation they have to participate in sooner rather than later."
My life has been indescribably enriched by public lands, and one of the most beautiful on earth is fast losing its wildness: Point Reyes National Seashore.
Tragically, the very organization charged with protecting Point Reyes, the national park, is hastening its demise.
If approved, the (NPS) proposal will turn this national seashore into a national disgrace.
"You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts." (Daniel P. Moynihan)
There is no shortage of opinions on ranching in Point Reyes National Seashore, but there is a shortage of durable facts.
Join subject matter experts to learn what is fact and what is fiction regarding various issues related to PRNS.
Read the full paper HERE.
On April 22, the California Coastal Commission held a virtual hearing to discuss the impact of dairy and cattle ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore. Superintendent Craig Kenkel began his presentation with the words, “Point Reyes is the ancestral home of the Coast Miwok.” Kenkel spent the rest of his talk advocating for a Park Service proposal to increase the terms of ranching leases from five to 20 years.
Peter Byrne does a deep-dive of the ongoing abuse of Point Reyes in the Bohemian.
"It’s an October morning at Point Reyes National Seashore and I’m scooting under barbed wire fences, wary of sliding into cow pies...park regulations require Seashore pastures to remain open to the public, but the dump is inside the E Ranch “core” of barns and dwellings, and the public is disallowed... "
An important alternative to seriously consider for how Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area are managed into the future, is a gradual restoration of the livestock zone back to its native plant vegetation and habitat for native animal species. At present, only relict areas of native coastal prairie exist. These relicts hang on in areas that cattle do not access, whether because these are on pasture edges too far from dairy operations, or because they are outside fenced pastures along roadsides or other small exclusions.
Tule elk should be allowed to naturally return to these restoring native plant communities. All relict native grassland patches should be inventoried by the park, mapped, and fully protected from all livestock grazing and disturbance. These can be used as reference sites and seed sources for future restoration efforts. Using standard native plant restoration techniques, these reference sites can be used to increase plants for plantings and re-seedings using local genetic sources, to disturbed areas of the Pastoral Zone where livestock impacts have removed the native plant communities and caused soil removal and erosion.
In California introduced annual grasslands--which currently dominate the Pastoral Zone--continuing disturbance causes declines in palatable species and an increase in non-native early seral weed species. Livestock grazing must be removed to allow the recovery and increase of sensitive coastal prairie and wet meadow species. After native herbaceous plant communities have begun to take a foothold in impacted livestock pastures, and are increasing and well on the way to recovery, methods for balancing coyote bush and bush lupine can be considered.
Prescribed cultural fire methods and tule elk grazing can maintain coastal prairie and other native plant communities in restored areas. Less than one percent of California's native grassland is still intact today. The ideal conservation strategy is to collect seed from local grasses, send it to a nursery, and have it grown out on a landscape scale to create a supply for restoration projects. This is being done in the East Bay. It is long past time for Point Reyes National Seashore to be fully restored.
Remove the 300-plus miles of barbed wire fences, and restore access to these public lands with new trails.
Restore tribal cultural management to these lands, and restore Indigenous access to areas such as Felix Cove.
Together, we can Restore the Shore!
Learn more about coastal prairies and what the future of Point Reyes National Seashore could be.