I’ve been out surveying the Drakes Estero headlands for signs of change in the wildlife and environment since most of the cows were removed from the peninsula. I thought that with the grasses left ungrazed, voles would be the first to benefit, as they require the overhead cover of the last season’s dry grasses while they forage.
With their annual accordion-like population dynamics that follow the wet and dry seasons, I expected noticeable increases shortly after the first grass germinations of this year’s early rains. In much of the farthest-flung headlands, where grazing was lightest, vole populations are high, but they have not spread into the more heavily grazed pastoral lands—even now, in late March.
In contrast, the grassy fields at the foot of Tomales Bay experienced just such a vole increase this winter, starting slowly in November and growing ever since. Cows were removed from these fields three years ago, so maybe the difference lies in the time it takes for the voles to build out effective structural cover.
These dynamics are critical. Voles serve as a dietary foundation for every predator we have, from bobcats and coyotes to hawks, badgers, weasels, skunks, raccoons and even ravens. Any cessation of cattle grazing should benefit them all. And as we are learning from studies of wolf reintroductions in Yellowstone, predators are critically important to a healthy, balanced and abundant ecosystem.
What I do see on the Point Reyes headlands is an increase in gopher activity and related badger digging. Gophers benefit from the healthier root systems of ungrazed grasses, and they and their fellow diggers, the moles, are essential for soil vitality. With our series of wetter winters, I have observed a dramatic spread of mole tunneling, indicating higher populations of earthworms—moles’ primary prey—and other grubs and larvae. These are all good indications of the health of the land.
Yet another thing that is sadly more apparent at the headlands since the removal of cows is the damage to soft sedimentary lands after years of neglectful land management. Everywhere, the lands are collapsing. Almost every ravine has a poorly built cattle pond, and the excavations have left raw scrapes where the ground is eroding.
Above the stock ponds, recessionary erosion is moving rapidly upstream, while below the dams the drainage trenches are growing deeper and the sides are in a continuous state of collapse. Cattle also left trails that are eroding rapidly. The roadcuts allowing access to all this infrastructure are causing extreme erosion, and this is not even to mention the hodge-podge of overgrown, broken-down barbed-wire fences. The damage from ranching activities would be catastrophic if they had continued for another 100 years.
These lands are geologically recent, unconsolidated sediments and conglomerates known as the Purisima Formation. They are 3 million to 6 million years old, much younger than the stable Franciscan land to the east, which dates back more than 100 million years. Purisima is soft and highly erodible, and a quick glance around Drakes Bay shows it. The deeply cut ravines, the esteros and the famous cliffs themselves are in a continual process of erosion as winter storms attack and loosen them. But that took place over millions of years. In contrast, the extensive erosion caused by ranching over the last century and a half is shocking.
Luckily, these wildlands were saved before all-out suburban development covered them, and they can be restored, given the will. Point Reyes is still relatively pristine, supporting a wide variety of native plants and animals. It is an unparallelled wildland and a global treasure—by far a higher priority than land used for food production.
Yes, the world has a problem with food security. But to me, the answer to the problem lies in getting a conscious handle on our human birth rate and in eliminating the unequal political distribution of existing food sources. Of course, this would require a degree of global cooperation that clearly America is not currently prepared to lead.
To those who think that grazing lands are the epitome of beauty, I suggest getting out of the car and going down to examine the land itself. Try to convince yourself that this damage can continue. We would do well to take a page from Native American wild-tending practices of 10,000 years and begin a restoration with long-term goals in mind. The Nature Conservancy’s cooperative agreement with the park service is a step in that direction.
Looking ahead, tule elk may prove to be an important part of long-term management. As the herds grow and disperse, they will play a role in the conversion of the hills from grasslands to patchy chaparral. At a certain point, they may overpopulate and begin damaging the willows in the canyons, just as they did at Yellowstone, degrading the entire ecosystem. There, once wolves were reintroduced, elk moved to higher ground for safety and the riparian corridors dramatically recovered.
I hope that in another 10 or 20 years we will have dispelled our cultural fear of wolves and be ready to bring them into the park. There have been only two documented human deaths due to wolf attacks in all North America over the last century. Native Americans used relatively controlled fire to keep lands open for game diversity. This may also be a necessary choice if conservation grazing and elk are insufficient to avoid a blanket of impenetrable thickets covering the headlands.
Richard Vacha is a Point Reyes Station resident and the founder of the Point Reyes Tracking School.