IMPACT

Seashore ranches represent 17% of all ranching in the county. Seashore dairies constitute 30% of the organic dairies in Marin County. As Albert Straus has written in the Point Reyes Light, “the loss of these dairies will be devastating to our community.”

The California Coastal Act, approved under the federal Coastal Zone Management Act,  gives ranches special protection and requires that “lands suitable for agricultural use shall not be converted to non-agricultural uses unless continued or renewed agricultural use is not feasible.”

If the Park’s plan to remove the fence at the Tule Elk preserve goes through, dairy ranches in the Seashore may be forced to close in the face of increased competition for forage.

The proposed action, in effect, would implement an alternative that was previously rejected by the National Park Service (in its Environmental Impact Statement on the General Management Plan Amendment in 2021) which was to eliminate dairying and ranching and enable the tule elk to expand across the lands leased for beef and dairy ranching (alternative F).

Losing the families employed on these dairies and ranches will be reflected in losses to the school populations, church congregations, and the whole community.

There is precedent for the County to intervene in the ongoing lawsuits, as it did in 2016.