A decade or so ago, during the closure of the Drakes Bay Oyster Farm and its aftermath, we co-wrote a series of pieces in the Light about a plan by the park and its allies to shut down the ranchers, leading to the end of agriculture on the peninsula. The late Phyllis Faber recalled the former superintendent of the seashore, Don Neubacher, describing the plan:
“That plan would start with closure of the oyster farm in Drakes Estero. Once it was gone, the park would stand by as environmental groups brought lawsuits against the surrounding ranches, claiming their operations were degrading water quality. The ranchers, whose means are modest, would have no choice but to shut down, bringing an end to the 150-year ranching tradition at Point Reyes.”
At the time, the park and its allies disputed that such a plan existed, claiming the oyster farm was different because it was in a wilderness area rather than the pastoral zone, and because the ranchers would soon be getting new 20-year leases, as directed by the then-Secretary of the Interior. We challenged them, and Congressman Jared Huffman, to prove us wrong.
It brings us no joy to report that we were right. Not long after the park shut down the oyster farm, environmental groups sued—the first lawsuit in a string of them—to remove the ranchers. Meanwhile, the park did the ranchers no favors, dithering over issuing new 20-year leases and flip-flopping over allowing elk into the pastoral zone.
Several lengthy public planning processes, with extensive input from the local community, concluded with direction to retain this 170-year tradition of land use. But lawsuits kept blocking implementation, and the park eventually gave in on allowing elk onto ranchlands. Exhausted and out of options, last week all but two of the Point Reyes ranchers agreed to a settlement that will see them shuttered by next year.
Although that settlement did yield new 20-year leases for ranchers in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, nothing prevents this same plan from being employed to sue-and-settle those ranchers out of business, too.
It is important to be clear-eyed about the impact of the closure of these historic agricultural operations. Significant change is coming to West Marin. Yet the park has yet to articulate a vision for how it will manage these thousands of acres once the ranchers are gone. So far, the signs are not encouraging.
At other ranches that were forced to close in recent years—D Ranch near Drakes Beach and Rancho Baulines at the southern end of Olema Valley—the park’s non-management has allowed the landscape to be overtaken by thistles and tall weeds. Buildings not occupied by park employees have fallen into decay and collapsed. What once were vibrant working ranches are now fire hazards and cultural graveyards. Formal designation in 2018 of the Point Reyes ranches themselves as a protected historic district did nothing to ensure their continuation.
As for the elk, the park has passively allowed their populations at Limantour and Tomales Point to suffer through unhealthy and artificial boom-and-bust cycles. The populations initially boomed, as the park has neither brought back natural predators nor allowed limited hunting, as is allowed with almost all the other tule elk herds in California. Then, particularly in drought years, dramatic die-offs ensue. This cycle will only be magnified once the elk spread over the rest of the park.
The plan that the park service and its allies have been working toward since the late 1990s has come to fruition: agriculture on Point Reyes is ending. A radical change in land management, one that runs counter to preferences expressed by the community in recent planning efforts, is being embarked upon just as a new national administration comes into office with no reputation for being favorable to conservation efforts. We are not hopeful for what will come next.
Laura Alice Watt is professor emerita at Sonoma State University and wrote a history of Point Reyes National Seashore titled “The Paradox of Preservation.” She lives in the Westfjords region of Iceland. Peter Prows is the managing partner of Briscoe Ivester & Bazel LLP, which represented the Drakes Bay Oyster Company and is currently representing the California Cattlemen’s Association in the suit over the Tomales Point elk fence removal. He lives in Oakland.