Six months after clearing the hurdles of a lawsuit, environmental review and thousands of public comments for its general management plan amendment, the Point Reyes National Seashore is starting the process anew to update its policies for Tomales Point. The park announced last Thursday it will receive public comments through May 2 as the first step in a new plan that will tackle tule elk management in the 2,900-acre fenced reserve. The park first announced it would revisit its 1998 Tule Elk Management Plan last December, after it had finalized the G.M.P.A., which only addressed the management of the park’s free-ranging herds. While the Limantour and Drakes Beach herds have blossomed as they graze freely on ranchlands and wilderness areas, the population sequestered behind fencing at Tomales Point has been volatile. From 2019 to 2022, the numbers dropped by half, a swing blamed on drought conditions that reduce the nutritional value of forage. The park departed from its 1998 guidelines when it supplied water troughs and mineral supplements last summer, but activists have called for the outright removal of the fence—an alternative that will be explored in the upcoming planning process. The effort adds to the seashore’s daunting to-do list as it faces challenges to its management policies on multiple fronts. One lawsuit, a reprise by the environmental groups that spurred the G.M.P.A. process in 2017, challenges the finalized document and aims to put an end to ranching in the seashore. The park is also awaiting a final ruling in another lawsuit filed by the Harvard Animal Law & Policy Clinic over elk deaths in the Tomales Point herd. The animal rights activists suing the park saw the Tomales Point announcement as a response to their legal action and argued that the three-year environmental review timeline was too generous. At a hearing last month, the California Coastal Commission, which conditionally approved the park’s management plan amendment last year, raised the threat of reversing its decision if the park couldn’t submit a new water quality monitoring plan. Park officials submitted an early version of that plan on March 24. After the initial public scoping comment period for the Tomales Point plan, the park service will outline a set of alternatives for review under the National Environmental Protection Act by next spring. Another public comment period will follow, and the process will be complete by 2025. Submit comments online at https://parkplanning.nps.gov/tpap.