Win-win deal over Point Reyes grazing
Ranchers, environmentalists OK with agreement
Environmental groups, ranchers and the National Park Service have reached a settlement over the future of cattle ranches in Point Reyes National Seashore. Under the settlement, announced Wednesday, the Park Service can extend grazing leases to ranchers for five years and must complete a comprehensive environmental assessment and management plan within four years, which conservationists said has been overdue for decades.
Three environmental groups — Mill Valley’s Resource Renewal Institute; Center for Biological Diversity, a national organization with offices in Oakland; and Western Watersheds Project, headquartered in Idaho — filed a lawsuit in February 2016. Its goal was to require the National Park Service to complete an environmental assessment and revise its management plan before renewing the leases to about 20 ranches in the park, which previously had been extended for decades at a time.
Some of the biggest names in the Bay Area’s organic meat and dairy industry lease land in Point Reyes, including Straus Family Creamery, Bill Niman and Nicolette Hahn
Niman of BN Ranch, and David Evans of Marin Sun Farms. The ranches became co-defendants in the case with the National Park Service after the suit was filed.
The controversy has caused a split in Marin County over what constitutes good environmental practices — allow ranchers to let their cattle graze the grasslands, or leave the land in its most natural state without the pollution, erosion and other effects of grazing that impact native tule elk and other wildlife?
Both sides are considering the settlement a victory.
“This is a win for those of us who don’t want to see tule elk evicted from the park and for anyone concerned about damage to wetlands, streams and wildlife habitats from cattle grazing,” Jeff Miller, with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a news release. “The public will get its long-overdue opportunity to weigh in on where native wildlife and public access should trump commercial cattle ranching on Point Reyes park lands.”
In a release, the plaintiffs said the Park Service will “consider a full range of alternatives, including ending or reducing beef and dairy cattle ranching in the park.”
Ranchers, on the other hand, said they consider the five-year lease agreement a win, because previous discussions had involved giving them only one-year lease extensions. Ranching leases on Point Reyes National Seashore have existed since 1962, when the federal government purchased the ranches to establish the park, and some ranchers have been there for generations.
“West Marin farming is important to our local economy and environmental protection, food safety and food security,” said Stacy Carlsen, Marin County agricultural commissioner, who said that 20 percent of farming in the county takes place in Point Reyes, representing about $20 million in revenue, and the majority of that is organic, which Carlsen said “represents the highest quality in farming.”
“This idea that our dairymen and our ranches out there are somehow imposing an environmental impact on the park is not fair,” he added.
But the environmental groups that filed the lawsuit claimed the National Park Service has put ranchers’ interests before those of park visitors and wildlife by neglecting to perform environmental impact assessments of cattle grazing on the seashore.
The national park is the only one with tule elk, who compete with the cattle for forage; it includes habitat for bobcat, coyotes, bald eagles, elephant seals and other wildlife.
When the National Park Service revises the park’s manParadox agement plan, which has not been fully updated since 1980, there will be a public comment period on any changes to appropriate uses and activities in the 71,000-acre park. About 18,000 acres are leased to ranches.
“I’ve always been mystified why the Park Service didn’t do their general management plan when they started the process back in 1997,” said Laura Alice Watt, environmental historian and professor at Sonoma State University and author of “The of Preservation: Wilderness and Working Landscapes at Point Reyes National Seashore.”
“As long as the plan is done well with a consistent approach, genuine public input and sound science — if it proceeds in that way, then the park will benefit from that,” Watt said.