Just north of Hog Island Oyster Company, a plot of National Park Service land between Highway 1 and Tomales Bay is facing an uncertain future. In a little over a year, a reservation of use and occupancy granted to the former owners of Dunn Ranch will expire, and the 52-acre property will come under the control of the Point Reyes National Seashore, though it is owned by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
As the date nears, at least two local groups have shown interest in the fallow pastures and seven structures, which include a house, a horse stable and a former creamery, a reminder of the land’s dairying past.
Audubon Canyon Ranch, a conservation and education nonprofit organization, has a research center in Marshall that surrounds the Dunn ranch on three sides.
John Petersen, the group’s executive director, spoke about the property to the East Shore Planning Group in September, and told the Light that he is meeting with seashore representatives in the next month to discuss plans.
He said the nonprofit “hopes that the park will manage the property to protect the natural values of the land consistent with our mission,” but that “until we meet we do not know what the park service wishes are for the property, or how ACR’s possible participation might fit with their goals.”
John Dell’Osso, a spokesman for the seashore, called the ranch an “important property.” “We will carefully explore options for its future,” he said. “We have heard from some neighboring properties of possible uses and those will all become a part of how we will eventually make a decision.”
Another group has formed around a proposal that would revitalize agriculture on the property. Spearheaded by Albert Straus, C.E.O. of Straus Family Creamery, the proposal—dubbed “Revitalizing Rural Communities, Agriculture and Conservation”—aims to address various issues facing West Marin, including the need for affordable housing and a next generation of farmers.
“How do you keep a community from being devastated by houses and ranches losing leases? That’s what we’re trying to address,” Mr. Straus said.
The plan calls for a partnership between the National Park Service and a local nonprofit focused on sustainable agriculture, such as the Marin Agricultural Land Trust. In the proposal, the existing structures at Dunn ranch would provide housing while farmers could learn and experiment with small-scale production.
Mr. Straus said the idea was inspired by a model in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, in Ohio. In that park, the nonprofit Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy has facilitated and monitored farming leases since 1999.
The nonprofit also operates farmers markets that sell the produce generated from the farms.
“MALT is investigating [the idea] and needs the support of ranchers first,” Mr. Straus said. “My hope is MALT would get support to incorporate this into their vision and purpose in the next year or less.”
East Shore Planning Group board member Charles Schultz, who facilitated the presentation by Mr. Straus’s group, supports the idea of combining the two efforts, though Mr. Peterson said doing so would conflict with Audubon Canyon Ranch’s stewardship policy, which he said requires the complete protection of natural landscapes.
“How can we have the birds and grow tomatoes?” Mr. Schultz asked. “We have to do things collectively and work together. I think A.C.R. will say no, but we have to try and put it in front of them.”
The planning group has not endorsed any proposal for the Dunn Ranch; the group’s president, Lori Kyle, said it was “just very interested in the decision.” “They’re both very attractive proposals for land use and it’d be lovely to have either of these proposals,” she said.
For now, Nancy Dunn is enjoying her last year on the ranch, the bulk of which she and Nancy Dunn Arndt sold to the National Park Service in 1992 for over $3.5 million. (That sale was for 44 acres and it’s unclear when or how the remaining eight acres were added to the
property.)
“When the lease is up with the park next year, we have to move. That’s how it is,” Ms. Dunn said. “In terms of any future for the property, it’s up to the park…I would say, as someone who lived here for 40 years, if A.C.R. submitted a proposal to the park, personally I think they’d be great stewards to this little 52-acre property. They’d preserve the wildlife, which is very important to me.”
The Dunn ranch dates back to the age of the Civil War, when it was part of General Henry Halleck’s Tomales Bay and Nicasio holdings, said Dewey Livingston. In the 1860s, Charles Miller leased 212 acres with a house near the current location of the ranch buildings; the land continued to change hands and, in the mid-1940s, it was sold to W. Hall. Later, Tony and Margaret Matteri ran a dairy there in the 1950s and 1960s.