Dairies are becoming an endangered species in Marin County. In June, the North Bay Business Journal reported that the region lost 11 dairy farms, four in Marin and seven in Sonoma, in large part because of the high cost of forage due to the drought. Meanwhile, the National Park Service is on a path to eventually eliminate the organic dairies from the Point Reyes National Seashore.  

Between the issuance of the park’s general management plan amendment and environmental impact statement in 2020 and the final version approved in 2021 with the filing of a record of decision, one of six dairies in the seashore closed. The amendment authorizes the five remaining dairies to continue to operate provided they commit to investing in unspecified infrastructure conditions and implementing modernization requirements to ensure natural resource protection. Under the final rules, the park can grant beef and dairy operations leases of up to 20 years, but if any of the five dairy operators closes, it cannot reopen, although it could convert to a beef operation. 

With 18 dairies left in Marin, the five in the park represent 31 percent of the organic dairies and 28 percent of all the dairies in a community that takes pride in producing prize-winning cheeses, butter, milk and ice cream. By dairy industry standards, these are small-scale operations, but they are important components of local farm-to-table businesses and farm-to-school programs.  

The socioeconomics section of the park’s environmental impact statement on the general management plan amendment found that converting the dairies to ranches would result in a loss of 27 direct jobs. If both the dairies and the beef operations were closed, 63 direct jobs would be lost. This may sound like a small number, but most of these workers live in housing on the dairies and ranches. Many have children in local schools, which are already dealing with problems of low enrollment. Others work second jobs and have family members who work in local service jobs. If these families were to lose their housing, they would face a dismal shortage of affordable local options. Closing the dairies and ranches in the park would aggravate the existing housing and employee shortage in West Marin.  

Standards for organic status from the United States Department of Agriculture require that dairy cattle obtain a minimum 30 percent dry matter intake from grazing for at least 120 days each year. Dairy pasture managers are required to use best management practices in their organic system plan. The park’s organic ranches and dairies meet these standards, but elk threaten their ability to meet the pasturing requirement. 

This past summer, the park announced that its preferred plan for Tomales Point is to remove the fence that keeps the elk off the adjacent dairy. Without the barrier, elk would move onto the dairy and compete with cattle for forage. The dairy may not be able to maintain its organic status under increased grazing pressure from elk. 

The other two alternatives for dealing with the reserve were culling some of the elk or allowing them to die off for lack of water or forage. That leaves only the fence removal as an option for those whose chief concern is cruelty to animals. The park’s 1998 Tule Elk Management Plan authorizes moving excess elk from the reserve into the wilderness area near Limantour, but that plan is being dropped.

Despite alleged problems with the park’s dairy operations, the relevant regulatory agencies all signed off on the general management plan amendment. For example, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service included mandatory measures and terms and conditions “to reduce the impacts of the GMPA” on several endangered species, and the National Marine Fisheries Service “found the GMPA will not jeopardize the continued existence of the fish
populations.” 

It was the park’s failure to update its 1980 general plan in a timely manner that led to the short-term ranch and dairy leases that make it impossible to finance capital maintenance and improvement projects. Consistent with this pattern of dreadfully slow action, it has been two years since the record of decision was filed in 2021. And the confidential mediation of the Resource Renewal lawsuit was just extended another five months, to March. What is being discussed in two years of mysterious and strictly confidential settlement negotiations? Is the park negotiating revisions to the general plan without public input after having gone through a formal environmental review process? If so, the lack of public input and secretive discussions relating to the management of public land violates the spirit if not the technical terms of the National Environmental Policy Act.

A recently formed citizen group is collecting signatures on a letter demanding that the park immediately grant the long-term leases for agricultural operations authorized in the new management plan. In addition to directing county counsel to intervene on behalf of Marin’s interests in the ongoing mediation, the Board of Supervisors, either as a body or as individuals, should join the coalition to save Marin’s food community. For information, visit https://savemarinfood.com/.

Judy Teichman a retired public law attorney. She lives in Point Reyes Station.