The parties attempting to reconcile their differences over ranching in the Point Reyes National Seashore have been granted more time to continue negotiating. Attorneys for the ranchers, the National Park Service and three environmental groups that sued over the park’s management of leases and tule elk herds have been trying to settle a lawsuit filed last year. The parties began settlement talks a year ago and initially hoped to reach an agreement last fall. Now, a federal district court judge has granted their request to extend their negotiations until Oct. 20, when they will again report on their progress. The parties are subject to a confidentiality agreement while the mediation is underway, so details of the negotiations have been kept under wraps. Given the high stakes for the region, many observers on all sides of the divisive issue have been frustrated by the secrecy. The talks are aimed at resolving a lawsuit filed by the Resource Renewal Institute, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Western Watersheds Project, which challenged a 2021 update to the park’s general management plan that allowed for 20-year lease extensions to ranchers and the culling of elk herds if they surpassed set population levels. The plaintiffs assert that the plan—which was itself created in response to an earlier lawsuit by the same groups—was an abdication of the park’s conservation duties. After the suit was filed, seashore superintendent Craig Kenkel announced that the park would suspend culling and only grant short-term, interim leases instead of the long-term leases ranchers had been promised a decade before by the United States Department of the Interior. The ranchers who joined the lawsuit maintain that short-term leases make it impossible to plan and invest in land stewardship. They say the free-ranging elk damage fences and eat expensive hay meant for cows, and they object to new provisions that ban growing silage and limit their ability to supplement their operations by raising chickens or planting row crops. In their latest joint status report to U.S. District Court Judge Maxine M. Chesney, attorneys for the plaintiffs and defendants agreed that they needed more time. “The parties believe that the mediation discussions continue to be productive, and the parties are planning additional mediation sessions during the summer of 2023 and further in-person meetings in September 2023 as they continue exploring a potential resolution of this matter,” the status report stated. The July 21 report was the fifth submitted since the parties agreed last year to attempt to settle their differences outside of court. Since submitting their last report in March, they have held Zoom meetings every other week with their mediator, Bradley O’Brien of Sausalito, and they met in person at the Point Reyes National Seashore in July.