Eighteen ranchers in the Point Reyes National Seashore asked a federal judge on Tuesday to let them intervene in the lawsuit that environmental nonprofits have filed against the National Park Service—but the judge denied the request. Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong did not rule on the merits of the argument, but said the hopeful intervenors had not conferred enough with the plaintiffs in the case, and that the filing was “premature” since a motion from the federal government to dismiss the case is pending. Judge Armstrong said the ranchers could refile later on.
The ranchers’ lawyer, Caroline Lobdell of the Western Resources Legal Center, said she was “not overly concerned” about the decision, given that the judge said they could refile.
According to her, the ranchers banded together to intervene despite the pending motion because they learned that the environmental groups were preparing to ask for a preliminary injunction. Though that request was never filed—the judge also said it needed to wait until she had ruled on the motion to dismiss—the ranchers became worried that their operations could be put in immediate jeopardy.
If the motion to intervene is refiled and granted at a later time, the ranchers would become defendants who could be party to deliberations and file arguments in the case, which they believe threatens their livelihood. The ranchers include Kevin and Nancy Lunny, Richard and Jackie Grossi, Ted and Rhea McIsaac, Gino Lucchesi Jr. and Clayton Lucchesi, Mike and Morgan Giamonna, Richard Gallagher, Ralph and Luke Giacomini, Fred and Ginny Rogers, Louis and Wyatt Zanardi and Paulette Percy.
In February, three nonprofits—the Resource Renewal Institute, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Western Watershed Project—sued the seashore on the grounds that undertaking a ranch plan before updating its 36-year-old general management plan is unlawful. The environmental groups alleged that all ranching leases and authorizations for the past six years were illegal, too, because the park did not conduct proper environmental reviews. The nonprofits want the judge to halt the ranch plan process until the general plan is updated, a process that could take years and could delay diversification and the issuance of 20-year leases.
The ranchers say in their filing that it is critical to allow them to intervene. The park, they say, cannot adequately represent their unique concerns because it must also represent public and environmental interests.
In February, after the lawsuit was filed, a representative with the Center For Biological Diversity said that the lawsuit did not specifically call for the elimination of agriculture in the seashore. But ranchers say they believe the nonprofits want “a wholesale elimination of ranching” in the seashore.