Marin’s Cattle Controversy
Organizers Want Ranchers Out of Point Reyes National Seashore
by Lisa Ludwigsen
Point Reyes National Seashore, located in Marin County, is a 71,000-acre jewel comprised of stunning beaches, dense forests, esteros, rolling grasslands, historic ranches, and even a waterfall. The park’s proximity to the 7 million residents of the San Francisco Bay Area ensures heavy year-round use by locals as well as visitors from far off places. More people than ever are enjoying the spectacular natural scenery that Point Reyes offers.
The park’s proximity to such a large population provides a rare illustration of the interplay between public and private lands, especially as it pertains to the ranching of beef and dairy cattle, which has been an integral part of the area since the 1850s. Several of the existing 20 ranches operating within park boundaries were founded to meet the needs of Gold Rush-booming San Francisco to the south. Beef and dairy products were transported via barges and sailing ships from docks inland to feed hungry San Franciscans.
One hundred seventy years later, these ranching operations have come under scrutiny for the environmental impacts caused by grazing cattle, including damage to native plants, erosion, and run-off into estuaries, creeks, and Tomales Bay, which supports thriving aquaculture farms growing oysters, mussels, and clams.
In a portion of the park, cattle also compete for water and forage with a herd of native tule elk, one of two subspecies native to California that were reintroduced to the park in 1978, after having been hunted to near extinction by 1850. The herd living at the tip of Point Reyes National Seashore, at Pierce Point, has been so successful post-reintroduction that it has exhausted both fresh water and grazing resources. The exceptional drought has exacerbated the herd’s challenges to the point that they suffer various ailments brought on by deprivation, including starvation. It is a heart wrenching situation.
Without the balance of natural predators, herds of managed or wild native animals can naturally outgrow their habitat. Elk predators, primarily bears and wolves, are not part of the current Point Reyes ecosystem. Mountain lions are present in Point Reyes, but not in sufficient numbers to control the herd, nor are they a primary predator of elk. In order to stay healthy, managed herds like the Point Reyes Tule Elk require culling or relocation. Culling is often conducted through permitted hunting, which can also generate funding for the park. But hunting is not feasible in a place so densely utilized by the public, so the job of culling falls to those charged with management, in this case the Point Reyes National Seashore.
This complex collection of issues rose to the forefront in 2016, when three environmental groups filed a lawsuit claiming the park did not properly study the environmental impacts of ranching within the park. Organized protests, exposés, films, and letter-writing campaigns highlighting the suffering of the elk and concerns over poorly managed ranches led to vocal and organized demands to cease all commercial operations within the park. This would allow native ecosystems to be restored and the elk to roam freely within the national seashore. In many ways, this makes sense—restore the park to its pristine condition, allowing visitors to experience a model of the area’s original, natural state, when native people lived on and managed the land.
The protest activity was also timed with the scheduled review of the ranching leases by the National Park Service. Activists were demanding that the leases not be renewed. Yet in August 2021, the leases were approved for an additional 20 years, with option for renewal. Other aspects of the new agreement included stricter oversight of ranching in sensitive riparian, wetland, and estuarine habitats; reducing the acreage used for ranching; and allowing fewer dairy animals. Also in the agreement: no new dairy operations and no commercial poultry or row crops. The controversy and disagreement will no doubt continue.
When looked at through the lens of local food production, this complicated scenario reveals yet another dimension. What would happen if we eliminated a sustainable food source produced within a stone’s throw of a major population center, especially in these times of ongoing food supply uncertainty? Where does our food actually come from? We’re seeing the cracks in our food system in the form of empty grocery shelves and steadily rising prices. One of the many lessons of the pandemic is that these food insecurities might not be temporary. It may be time to rethink how our food is produced and distributed.
Chris Jepson, grocery manager of Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op, which has been in business since 1976, reminds us that the pandemic, coupled with climate change, revealed that food shipped long distances, via a centralized distribution system, has considerable inherent flaws. “I used to place regular orders from our main distributor and be confident that the truck would show up, on time, four days a week,” shares Chris. “At the height of the pandemic, trucks didn’t show up at all, or only half the order was delivered.” We continue to see those empty shelves of products we’ve always considered as staples. Chris adds, “I still have significant challenges with supplies of some staple items, so I now rely on a variety of distributors to source essential food for our customers, and it is still a challenge.”
Food prices are also on the rise. Ongoing drought has severely limited corn production in the Midwest, which affects prices on everything from cereal to meat, because animals, especially poultry, rely on inexpensive feed to keep prices low. “Without corn, prices on many products go way up,” says Chris. Labor shortages continue to hamper international shipping of everything from food products to ingredients and packaging. It really is surprising that a system so ingrained in Americans’ expectation of food stability could falter so quickly.
While the quantity of food produced from historic ranching operations in Point Reyes National Seashore isn’t large in the big picture, it does represent a sustainable food source close to home. As Chris says, “Short term food production leases do not provide incentive for farmers or ranchers to care for the land. The idea that livestock operations can continue to exist in the same place for 150 years is the very definition of sustainable farming.”
Whit Strain, a second-generation aquaculture farmer with leases in Tomales Bay and Bodega Bay, believes there is room for everyone—for the public to enjoy Point Reyes National Seashore and farmers to produce food there. Oysters are exceptional water filterers, but they require clean water in order to be suitable for consumption. “We are downstream from just about everyone,” says Whit. After big winter storms, run-off from Point Reyes ranches causes bacteria levels in the bay to rise and prevents oysters from being harvested until water quality improves. This consideration is built into the expectations of aquaculture farmers in Point Reyes. Whit says, “Humans are part of the problem and part of the solution. There is a lot of interest in the environmental benefits of aquaculture and much we can do to continue to care for this place while producing very high-quality food.”
Reconciling the preservation of public lands with the business interests of the ranchers that use it is a complex issue. It’s important to keep sustainably produced local food a top consideration in decisions regarding land use as we move forward in these uncertain times. Chris Jepson points to a poignant quote from food writer Paul Greenberg: “There is no more intimate relationship we can have with our environment than to eat from it.” Ultimately, if we take care of our environment, it will take care of us.
Photo p 45 Cows on Point Reyes (37434p) by Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
