California Coastal Commission endorses Point Reyes ranch, elk plan

After nearly 12 hours of debate on Thursday, California’s top coastal regulators conditionally approved a controversial federal plan to allow commercial cattle ranchers who rent land in Point Reyes National Seashore to obtain longer leases and a plan to kill some of the park’s tule elk to prevent conflicts with ranches.

The California Coastal Commission voted 5-4 to endorse the National Park Service’s plan so long as it met several conditions. These include improving water quality tests near ranches; reporting on the progress of the water quality plan and climate adaptation strategies to the commission at a public hearing within 12 months; and returning in 2026 to update the commission on the progress to address water contamination near ranches.

Commissioners Matt O’Malley, Dayna Bochco, Caryl Hart and Roberto Uranga cast the dissenting votes.

The National Park Service proposes to extend leases for dairy and beef cattle ranches at Point Reyes and the neighboring Golden Gate National Recreation Area from five-year to 20-year leases. Park officials and ranching families that have worked on the land for 150 years said the plan would fulfill a promise by U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in 2012 to give ranchers greater financial security. Longer leases would allow them to invest more into their operations and their ability to address environmental concerns including water contamination.

“I hope to be able to raise a family and someday hand down our legacy to the next generation,” said William Nunes, an organic dairy rancher whose family owns three ranches in the seashore.

The plan also proposes to allow park staff to shoot and kill some tule elk in the park’s Drakes Beach herd to keep the population at 120 elk. The herd had 139 elk this winter.

Ranchers and park staff say the lack of predators for elk will require some elk to be killed to prevent property damage and retain adequate pasture forage that is required to maintain organic certification.

“Frankly, the elk threaten the organic certification of our family business,” fourth-generation Point Reyes dairy rancher Ernest Spaletta told the commission. “This is not an issue for the coastal commission to address or resolve.”

Opponents and a cohort of environmental groups say the plan prioritizes private agriculture over the park service’s obligation to protect public land and wildlife.

While some environmental groups called for the park service to be under stricter water quality standards, several groups and a large number of public attendees advocated for completely removing the ranches as the only remedy to address environmental concerns.

“Please do not be on the wrong side of history,” said Fleur Dawes of the In Defense of Animals organization.

The coastal commission meeting was one of the last public hearings on the plan before the federal government decides whether to approve it before a court-mandated July 14 deadline.

The coastal commission’s jurisdiction over coastal regions does not apply to federal lands including the two national parks. Therefore, the commission had no ability to stop the federal plan from being implemented.

Instead, the commission focused on any “spillover” impacts the park’s plan could have on state coastal areas and wildlife and could request the park service to agree to certain remedies.

The standout issue for the commission that its staff felt could be significantly improved is reducing water contamination, such as manure runoff into local creeks and beaches. Some waterways had not been tested for water quality since 2013. Recent tests of these waterways found bacteria levels significantly higher than state health standards.

Some commissioners butted heads with its staff’s and the National Park Service’s stance that the commission did not have jurisdiction over aspects such as how the park manages its tule ellk herds and issues related to air quality.

Commissioner Bochco was the most outspoken, especially related to the tule elk. She said the park’s plan makes the elk “second-class citizens” in favor of cattle. The elk population, if unimpeded by ranching operations, would likely be much larger and have spread outside the park boundaries and into areas under the commission’s jurisdiction, she said.

“What is wrong with you?” Bochco told park staff. “I will not support anything that does not support this animal’s survival.”

Coastal commission staff, however, stated that the proposed killing of some Drakes Beach elk would not cause any large-scale impacts and is not within the commission’s jurisdiction.

Coastal commissioner and Marin County Supervisor Katie Rice supported the park’s ranch and elk plan with the conditions that the park service improve and report its water quality testing.

“Without those longer leases, frankly, we can’t expect the ranchers to make the investments they need to make in order to achieve the water quality benefits and stewardship of the land and coexist with the tule elk that this plan envisioned,” Rice said.

Other Marin political leaders including Rep. Jared Huffman, state Assemblyman Marc Levine, state Sen. Mike McGuire and Marin County Supervisor Dennis Rodoni urged the commission to endorse the plan.

“Ranching is part of the seashore’s DNA,” Huffman said. “And that’s why this plan proposes to continue permitting it, it’s why Congress has repeatedly and explicitly from 1962 to as recently as two years ago reaffirmed that multigenerational ranching should continue to be part of this unique park.”

Addressing concerns about the park’s enforcement of any non-compliant ranches, Craig Kenkel, the seashore’s superintendent, said he recently asked one rancher to remove his cattle due to continuing violations. He said this focus on enforcement extended back to his previous job leading the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, which also leased land to private farmsteads.

“I do know the importance of transitioning of this kind of farm activity from being really mission-focused to one that also includes accountability and responsibilities,” Kenkel said. “It can be done and it will be done.”