How long ranching will survive in the Point Reyes National Seashore is an open question, although park officials on Saturday said they're not hurrying to push it out of existence.

Advisory commissioners to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area heard comments from roughly 20 West Marin residents Saturday about the future of the National Seashore, and ranching within it.

The meeting was the last of four meetings designed to involve the public in revising the general management plan for the National Seashore, which will be the park's guiding document for the next 20 years.

Park officials also presented commissioners with documentation about current projects, including:

a fire-management plan in which prescribed burns are used to reduce hazardous fuels and control the spread of exotic plants on National Seashore's 71,000 acres.

an outline of efforts to protect and preserve 23 threatened or endangered plant and animal species in the park, including the snowy plover, sea otter, and spotted owl.

an update on the status of the historic D Ranch, which is vacant and rapidly deteriorating.

a report from Supt. Don Neubacher, who said that the purchases of the 563-acre Giacomini Ranch in Point Reyes Station and the 23-acre MCI receiving site on the Point are pending, and that the Park Service is also interested in acquiring the 521-acre AT&T telecommunications site, where operations ceased two weeks ago.

Discussion of the general management plan focused on the preservation of the park's cultural and pastoral landscape, led in part by local historian Dewey Livingston of Inverness. Livingston told the commissioners he has been a hiker and a "wanderer of these hills" for 30 years, and has seen numerous areas that historically have been grassland begin to be covered by shrub and forest.

"I would like to see the pastoral zones remain the same as they are now," he said. "I think what the public wants... is these rolling, green-grassy hills. And I'd like to see that one-third of the park remain these green, grassy hills with the cattle on them."

Ranching, Livingston explained, has not only added an essential cultural element to the park, but has also been beneficial in keeping the grasslands and meadows clear of plants and trees, as the cattle graze on the saplings and sprouting shrubs. In previous times, he added, elk grazed the lands at Point Reyes, and the current grazing of elk and cows is preserving the region's historic and pre-historic landscape.

"Cattle are containing invasive species," Livingston said, and he encouraged the panel to "look at all sides" when considering the influences of ranching.

Supt. Neubacher disagreed that meadows are maintained strictly by grazing, and cited the effects of weather.

"It's a very complex issue," he said. "The [Marin] headlands have always been grassland, and that's due primarily to salt-spray and wind." He explained that while there is typically "less biological diversity in grazed areas," he does "hope the park's cultural heritage is perpetuated."

Commissioner Merritt Robinson said that he would like to see the land left to its natural process. "We have all these different conditions dynamically responding to our way of doing things on the land," he said. "We ought to let nature show what it does."

Ironically, park administrators are currently faced with the difficult decision of what to do with the dilapidated dairy at the historic D Ranch along Drake's Beach Road.

The permitted ranch operator, Vivian Hall-Horick, died in the spring of 1998, leaving the site vacant and in a state of severe disrepair. "There has been a lot of deferred maintenance, and the buildings are in really bad shape," said Asst. Supt. Frank Dean.

According to Dean, Horick's three children, none of whom have recently lived on or worked on the site, are not legally permitted to operate the ranch, and have missed multiple deadlines in the process of getting a special-use-permit. "We will terminate [the Horick's] use of the ranch on Nov. 1 of this year," he explained.

The Park Service, he said, intends to perform "emergency" repair work on the roofs of the structures at a cost of $10,000, and to defer the larger decision as to what to do with the dairy for at least six months, after the winter rains are over.

Commissioner Michael Alexander expressed his displeasure with the Park Service's indecision. "My advice would be to make the decision tomorrow," he said. "We don't want to throw away money to stabilize the buildings if it might be decided later not to restore them."

Dean acknowledged that while demolishing the structures is an option, he does not anticipate that the dairy, which dates back to the early 1870s, will be razed. "We pretty much know that we're not going to tear them down," he said.

Historian Livingston, when asked to comment on the subject by commissioner Ed Wayburn, noted the historical significance of the site, saying the ranch house and the creamery are the last of their kind. "D Ranch is one of the best examples of the tenant ranches in the park," he said.

Dogtown's Cela O'Connor asked the commissioners to consider entering into a partnership with an operator willing to invest their own money to restore the buildings, but Neubacher explained that the issuing of any such permit must be "competitive" to meet legal standards.

Neubacher assured commissioners and the public that the historical elements of the park will not be neglected. "Over the next year we are bringing a team of experts in to look at the cultural landscape," he said. "We will then present an overall plan of attack. I think we just need to be patient."

The public can still send written comments on the management of the park to Point Reyes National Seashore, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956, attn: GMP. E-mail can be sent to ann_nelson@nps.gov.

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