Beginning early next month, the National Park Service will begin work on grant-funded rangeland water quality improvement projects on seven ranches in Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Construction will focus on four project types: cattle exclusion fencing, cattle watering facilities, controlled cattle crossings and erosion control measures. Each project is designed to reduce the amount of time cattle spend in or around waterways, thus reducing the sediment, nutrients and pathogens in surface waters. Benefits to ranchers include the improvement of pasture utilization and providing cleaner, more consistent drinking water to cattle. These new management practices will also support the seashore’s goals of maintaining or improving habitats for federally listed salmon, reducing soil erosion associated with ranching activities, enhancing riparian and wetland habitats and improving rangeland health. All projects will take place in areas within the Tomales Bay watershed, Duxbury Reef Area of Special Biological Significance or Point reyes Headlands.