The Point Reyes National Seashore is seeking public comment on its controversial proposal to remove the fence holding the tule elk herd at Tomales Point, a move supported by environmentalists but fiercely opposed by West Marin
agriculturalists.

Seashore officials announced in June that they would propose removing the 8-foot-tall, 2-mile-long fence. Eliminating the enclosure, they maintain, would give the elk access to more nutritious forage and water, which have become scarcer with drought and climate change. 

Ranchers on Point Reyes say existing free-ranging elk herds eat forage intended for cows and damage infrastructure. Removing the fence, they argue, would threaten the existence of the park’s 13 active ranches, including five dairies, that are a key component of organic farming in Marin. One of the dairies, run by the Kehoe family, borders the elk fence.

Park officials will host a virtual public meeting next Thursday, Sept. 7, to outline their proposed action and will accept public comment through Monday, Sept. 25. After that, they will begin an environmental assessment to consider the impacts of leaving the fence in place or removing it.

The plan for Tomales Point is separate from the park’s general management plan, which the park amended in 2021 with updated policies on agriculture and the seashore’s free-ranging elk herds. Both plans are being litigated. 

The 2,900-acre enclosure on the northern tip of Point Reyes separates around 300 elk from nearby cattle and dairy ranches. But elk find ways through the fence, and two other established free-ranging herds already compete with cattle for forage and water elsewhere on the park’s historic, leased ranchlands. 

The proposed action is one of three alternatives released this week as part of the public process required under the National Environmental Policy Act. 

Besides removing the fence, the park’s favored alternative would eliminate storage tanks that have provided water for elk during the drought, make the Pierce Point Ranch more welcoming to visitors with improved parking options, and add a spur trail to a viewpoint from the Tomales Point Trail.   

A no-action alternative would continue the status quo, with officials providing water to the fenced herd as needed but allowing it to self-regulate, growing or shrinking without human intervention. The third alternative would allow park officials to cull the fenced herd when it grows too large to sustain itself in the reserve. 

Officials say a major objective of the Tomales Point plan is to protect cultural resources in collaboration with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, including important archaeological sites. This is the first planning document the park has drafted since forming a government-to-government partnership with the tribe in 2021, said Melanie Gunn, a park spokeswoman.

“As we’re making decisions and thinking about things, they’re really engaged,” Ms. Gunn said. “We’re reaching out to them. That’s a big part of this plan. We’re learning from each other in this partnership.”

Tribal leaders support the removal of the fence, but agricultural producers say they could not sustain their operations without it.

“Removing the fence and reducing the forage available to the cattle would be the death knell for multi-generational dairies in the seashore,” said Judy Teichman, a retired Point Reyes Station lawyer. “It would be inconsistent with 150 years of history.”

The seashore’s ranches were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. They are classified as a “rural historic district,” and the park is required to maintain the integrity of the buildings and surrounding landscapes within its boundaries.

Agriculture supporters want to see the ranchlands stay active, providing food, jobs and housing instead of fading into cultural and historic relics.

Environmental activists who want to see the end of ranching in the park say officials appear to be finally listening to the public. “It’s great that the park service is seemingly finally listening to the overwhelming public voice on this,” said Ken Bouley, an activist with a home in Inverness Park. “Of course, the proposed action does not guarantee that that’s what they’re going to do.”

Before recommending its path forward, the park held a scoping period last year and reviewed more than 4,000 written comments, the bulk of which recommended taking down the fence and eliminating ranching from the park altogether.

The park plans to finish its environmental assessment next summer, when it will hold additional public hearings. It is expected to announce a final decision by the fall of 2024.

California’s tule elk, which are native to the state, had nearly vanished when the Department of Fish and Game reintroduced them to sites across the state, including to Tomales Point in 1978.

By 1998, the population threatened to overwhelm the capacity of the reserve, and the park drafted a management plan that recommended the relocation of 27 elk to a wilderness area near Limantour Estero. Within a few years, some of those elk appeared on cow pastures near Drakes Beach, setting up a clash with ranching operations. 

During the recent drought, some elk in the reserve grew sick and died. Activists staged protests and demanded the removal of the fence, and the park began delivering water and mineral licks. 

In 2021, three environmental groups represented by the Harvard Animal Law and Policy Clinic filed a lawsuit alleging that the elk were dying due to mismanagement. The case stated that in 2020, the fenced elk population fell by about 150. 

But the park’s most recent count, completed in February, showed the herd had grown by 20 percent. Officials say the population ebbs and flows, dropping as competition for available forage increases and recovering when the supply of food becomes sufficient. 

Last February, a federal judge dismissed the Harvard lawsuit, but the plaintiffs have appealed his decision.  

Meanwhile, the park service, ranchers and environmentalists are engaged in settlement talks in a second suit over whether ranching should be allowed to continue in the park at all. That suit challenged the park’s 2021 update to its general management plan, which allowed for 20-year lease extensions. It also permitted the park to cull the free-ranging herd that has interfered with ranch operations near Drakes Beach.

For more information and to comment, visit https://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?documentID=131377.