The Cattle Empire Strikes Back in Point Reyes Again.
Again.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into Point Reyes National Seashore, finally, with thousands fewer cows compacting and desiccating the land, damaging all manner of vegetation, and polluting park streams and lagoons with manure and urine, the beef and dairy cattle ranchers than ever before — dairy and beef ranchers are back. And they’re at it again. Again. Which is to say, inundating local media outlets (and nationals, when they can get ‘em) with misinformation, distortions and of course omissions about emissions. All designed to continue propagandizing the public, and lobbying the National Park Service (NPS) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to… get this… bring thousands more, new cows, including dairy cows, back into Point Reyes.
The gentle tule elk who are native to Point Reyes. (Constrast with rancher cattle, a polluting, destructive, extractive industry-for-profit.)
JOIN OUR NEXT ELK ACTION – Thursday, April 16 – PLEASE ARRIVE @ 4PM
(Official Meeting runs 5-8pm), Thursday, April 16, 2026
Our next action — peaceful, organized, and safe — for the tule elk and all other wildlife inside the park is Thursday, April 16, from 5-8pm in west Marin County, at the West Marin School in the town of Point Reyes Station (@ #11550 Shoreline Hwy (Rte 1). All elk, wild animal and national park advocates are invited to attend a public meeting organized by the National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy. They want to hear our voices, not just locals with financial interests (and their cows) feigning ecological concern for our beloved national park which they have ravaged for over a century.
• MORE INFO on EVENTS PAGE, HERE.
THE UGLY
Dairy and beef ranchers — I’m not naming names here, but may in the future — are more brazen and desperate than ever, insisting that thousands more cows are needed in Point Reyes National Park to — get this — benefit the park’s ecology. But of course the exact opposite is true: for-profit, domesticated, overbred beef and dairy cows are not wild bison, no matter how many times ranchers insist they are. Today’s cow herds have only damaging effects on soil (compaction, desiccation), vegetation (trampling), waterways (bovine fecal pollution) and atmosphere (GHGs emissions from the enteric digestion of cows, organic or not). Cattle operations are a primary driver of global heating and the climate crisis, as science has shown for decades. Which is why small family farms and factory farms alike make this omission of emissions reality when promoting cows as necessary. They’re certainly not gentle lawnmowers “reducing fire danger” by eating Point Reyes down to bare, trampled dirt. (See the photo above, of a Point Reyes dairy in summertime.) Their media blitz goal? Muddy the manure-polluted waters and confuse the public; keep ‘em supporting “local food” and “local jobs” for the “local economy.” Ignoring that tourism brings in lots more money into Marin County, CA where Point Reyes sits.
THE BAD
Not all of the private cattle ranchers are leaving the park. Two beef ranchers, Dave Evans and Bill Niman (of famed organic beef ranch fame) will legally remain in Point Reyes, likely with long-term leases. But the the agreement with TNC stipulates they will have fewer than 300 beef cows between the two of them. But, in addition, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) plans to bring in 400 to 1,200 more private beef cows, ostensibly as lawnmowers (my word not theirs), claiming cows are the best remedy for removing the explosion of non-native plants and grasses — which the cattle operations brought into the park in the first place!
The non-native plants and grasses arrived largely via cow feed trucked into Point Reyes for over 100 years.
Both ranchers and TNC advocate using cows to address thick non-native vegetation and land damaged by cows. Both parties conveniently ignore the massive methane emissions from cows, and the water pollution from the millions of pounds of cow manure dumped, untreated, onto the land.
THE RIDICULOUS
The TNC website even has a white paper of sorts with an oxymoronic title: “Sustainable Grazing,” which may as well say, “The Tooth Fairy.” Because the commercial grazing of livestock is, by its very nature, anti-wild nature. Cattle grazing, including organic and local and small and rotational and targeted and regenerative ranching all compact soil, damage stream banks, and introduce cow manure into any nearby waterways downhill of the herds of bovine grazer-poopers.
So called “regenerative” cow farms and “sustainable” grazing boosters boast of minimal soil carbon sequestration gains while ignoring the cows burping and farting massive amounts of invisible methane gas into the atmosphere, which traps 90x times more heat over its 20 year lifecycle than CO2 does.
THE GOOD
The news isn’t all bad. Far fewer cows, much freer elk. In the past year we have made huge, positive gains for the park’s incredible tule elk — and the tens of thousands of other wild animals who live at Point Reyes but who rarely get the attention cows do.
All 6 Point Reyes dairies have accepted their multi-million dollar golden parachutes, compliments of The Nature Conservancy. They’ve surrendered their federal leases — they already sold the land to the feds in the 1960s — in exchange for this second giant, multi-million dollar payout. (A reported $2-3 million per cow farmer.) Don’t you wish your landlord would pay you millions to surrender your lease and retire?
By mid-April, 2026, over 4,000 privately owned, exploited, and killed-for-profit beef and dairy cows will have left Point Reyes.
The park’s 3 separate herds of tule elk are now freer to wander, mix and intermingle than ever before. They will endure less harassment from ranchers than ever (since their 1978 re-introduction to the Point Reyes peninsula where they lived for tens of thousands of years).
Fewer cows and happier, healthier tule elk are the result of literally years of activism and citizen involvement. And with that in mind…
JOIN OUR NEXT ELK ACTION – Thur., April 16, 2026 – PLEASE ARRIVE @ 4PM
(Official Meeting runs 5-8pm), April 16, 2026
Our next action — peaceful, organized, and safe — for the tule elk and all other wildlife inside the park is Thursday, April 16, from 5-8pm in west Marin County, at the West Marin School in the town of Point Reyes Station (@ #11550 Shoreline Hwy (Rte 1). All elk, wild animal and national park advocates are invited to attend a public meeting organized by the National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy. They want to hear our voices, not just locals with financial interests (and their cows) feigning ecological concern for our beloved national park which they have ravaged for over a century. Email Jack for details.