The Cows That Ate Point Reyes

[douglas9]

Fences. Everywhere I went during a recent trip to Point Reyes, I encountered fences. Why are there fences in a national park unit? They exist to facilitate the private use of public lands for a personal profit with the full blessing of the Point Reyes National Seashore administration.


Fences are symbolic of the controversy surrounding this park area. There are over 300 miles of barriers in the park. The controversy surrounding private ranching in a national park illustrates the problems created when personal profit and “cultural” preservation trumps the other values national parks are supposed to preserve.

Livestock grazing in the park significantly degrades natural values, which the NPS is supposed to protect. This includes damage to streams, pollution of waterways, and harm to native fauna and flora.

Like zombies rising from the dead, every time the grace period for ranchers to operate on these public lands has ended, another grace period is initiated. A controversial new management plan by the NPS calls for renewal of rancher’s grazing privileges in the park for another 20 years, expansion of agricultural crop growing, and the killing of Tule elk, a rare subspecies of elk found only in California, so they do not compete with domestic livestock within Point Reyes. It would also permit installing a four-mile fence to separate elk from domestic cattle using OUR public lands. Allow ranchers to convert grasslands to commercial row crops. And expand the number of livestock permitted to graze the park.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/29/the-cows-that-ate-point-reyes/

[Celerity]

1. Outrageous Bundyesque bullshit

And those poor elk!

[2naSalit]

2. Here's a great article with pictures...

George Wuerthner explains:


http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2021/04/25/california-coastal-commission-on-point-reyes-ranching/

[enough]

3. Those pictures make it very clear. NT

[PufPuf23]

4. When Pont Reyes was formed, the ranchers sold the land

with the deal that they would be able continue grazing.

IMO this is a bad idea to continue. But the Feds paid far less for the land than they would have from an outright sale, especially if Eminent Domain was used.

There once was exotic deer herds at Point Reyes, Fallow Deer and Axis Deer. But reading some links looks like the exotic deer have been removed and the more native Tule Elk introduced to the Park. Long ago in mid 70s, I was a student at Cal and in a wildlife class did drives to inventory the exotic deer and also a capture-recapture sample of the rodent populations. Have not been there since the 20th century.

Cows should go but probably the legal system will say the ranchers should be compensated for land sold with deal to continue grazing. Unfortunately not free but should be done ASAP.