Marin officials fight attempt to oust ranchers from National Seashore

April 05, 2016

Marin County officials are rallying to support ranchers in the fight against a lawsuit they think would end cattle and dairy operations in the Point Reyes National Seashore.

Rep. Jared Huffman joined county supervisors in backing continued ranching activity in the national parkland, an enterprise federal officials promised could continue when families who had farmed the land for generations sold their holdings for inclusion in the park decades ago.

After meeting in closed session, the board announced the county will join the National Park Service in the legal fight to oppose the lawsuit.

Just a year after an oyster farming operation was booted from the seashore amid heated controversy, three environmental groups have taken aim at ranching, saying park officials must update a management plan and conduct an environmental analysis before extending cattle grazing rights. Ranchers fear the lawsuit will doom their leases. Some observers fear an end to ranching in the seashore would erode the farming economy in West Marin, perhaps leading to residential development of vacant farmland parcels.

Huffman and the county board sided squarely with the ranching community Tuesday as a crowd gathered at the Civic Center to boost farming as usual on coastal parkland.

“You are going to see me work shoulder to shoulder with you to defeat this litigation,” Huffman told the county board. “The overwhelming majority of the environmental community supports ranchers.”

“The continuation of the historic ranches and dairies ... was really at the core” of what “this community and this county signed up for so many years ago” when the federal government bargained to acquire the property, the congressman added.

Supervisors in turn each expressed support for ranchers.

“This is a no-brainer,” Supervisor Katie Rice said, backing county involvement “in opposing this lawsuit.” Supervisor Judy Arnold agreed, saying, “We’re all totally supportive.” Board president Steve Kinsey, saying national seashore bureaucrats welcome county support, added he was “glad to see the full board recognizes this is the destiny.”

The board then went into closed session to discuss how “muscular” it should be in opposing the lawsuit, with options ranging from filing a “friend of the court” brief to joining the park in an aggressive defense. The board later announced the county will ask the court to allow it to intervene in the matter and join the park service in opposing the suit, with county counsel working in concert with federal lawyers.

The board, most often inclined to discuss all aspects of lawsuits behind closed doors, instead held a public discussion about some of the issues as a crowd dominated by representatives of the ranching community assembled. The audience included representatives of cattle and dairy ranchers, the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, the Marin Farm Bureau, the Straus Family Creamery, the county agricultural and farm offices, and the California Cattlemen’s Association, among others.

The parade of speakers included Betty Nunes, whose family has ranched the land for a century, and runs a 220-head organic dairy herd on 650 acres at “A” Ranch. “We have had a great relationship with the park,” she said. “We hope we can keep producing food” for Marin.

In filing suit in federal court earlier this year, the Resource Renewal Institute, Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project contended an in-depth public review of ranching activities was needed.

Huey D. Johnson, president of Resource Renewal Institute and a former state secretary of resources, at the time criticized the park service for a lack of comprehensive planning and environmental analysis. The lawsuit indicates the National Park Service relies on an outdated management plan that fails to consider climate change, increasing recreational use and threats to wildlife including tule elk.

Johnson in 1977 served as president of the Trust for Public Land, helping to acquire more than 2,000 acres for the seashore and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Johnson contends land intended as habitat and recreation area has been inappropriately leased to private ranchers.

Fifteen ranch families have 24 leases of seashore tracts that stretch over 18,000 of the park’s 71,000 acres.


Source: by Nels Johnson