Tule elk deaths at the fenced enclosure on Tomales Point over the past two years drew sharp criticism last week from the environmental nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, which argued that the fate of the fenced elk showed why their movement should not be constrained at all in the park’s upcoming ranch management plan, which will address other herds. “Tule elk need room to roam, and native wildlife in our national park should not be fenced in or prevented from finding water and food,” said Jeff Miller, a spokesman for the center, in a statement.
The Light reported on March 19 that the enclosed tule elk population dropped by almost half between 2012 and 2014, from 540 to 286 animals. The park attributed the drop to drought conditions, explaining that stock ponds dried up in an area that lacks year-round streams. At the same time, the two free-ranging herds grew, collectively, from 160 to 212.
The park service takes a hands-off approach to managing the fenced herd, and wildlife in general. Dave Press, a wildlife biologist with the seashore, told the Light last month that the park is considering filling a stock pond during future droughts, to balance the ideal of letting nature establish carrying capacities in changing conditions and the fact that the animals are constrained. He added this week that the park may do more counts this year, to more closely monitor their numbers. (Since rainy season has brought 28 inches of rain to Inverness, the ponds are no longer empty.)
But Mr. Press and Melanie Gunn, the outreach coordinator for the seashore, stressed that the population has regularly had ups and downs, in this case exacerbated by drought. Calving also slowed in response to a lack of resources, so there were fewer young than normal replacing the dead.
Mr. Press said the most recent plan guiding the fenced herd’s management, from 1998, agreed to keep the elk enclosed, and it noted that population fluctuations are expected there. “It’s quite bizarre in a way that there are these charges of mismanagement, considering the plan went through peer review,” he said.
The Center for Biological Diversity’s statement also tied the die-off issue to the ranch management plan that the seashore is currently drafting, arguing that the deaths show why wildlife shouldn’t be limited at all.
The nonprofit wrote that ranchers in the park “are lobbying the Park Service to remove or fence out the free-roaming elk from ranching area,” which it opposes. Ranchers, particularly around Drakes Beach and Home Ranch, say that the elk eat grasses on their leased lands that they use for cattle grazing; they want the elk off the pastoral zone and back in designated wilderness.
But the two issues—the fenced herd and the free-ranging herds—are entirely separate, Ms. Gunn said. “That population has been going up and down and up and down, having nothing to do with what we’re trying to decide to do [in the plan],” she said.
The ranch plan will spell out how exactly to manage the free-ranging herd, given the conflicts with cattle; some possibilities include a non-enclosed fence or relocating some elk outside the seashore. “The ranch plan is about the future of ranching in the park and how we go about doing that and address concerns,” she said. A draft plan is expected this winter.