When is that %#@! Pt. Reyes elk fence coming down??
For those of you who’ve been wondering, here’s the latest news re. the fenced-in herd of Tule elk at Point Reyes National Seashore.
On Sept. 12, 2024, the CCC approved the NPS’ TPAP for the Tule Elk Reserve at PRNS north of SF, CA, which is a prequel, we expect, to the anticipated NPS Final Decision we expect (hope?) the NPS to announce this October or November.
Got all that? If you don’t speak National Park Service bureaucratese, here’s the English translation:
Last week the California Coastal Commission (CCC) approved the National Park Service (NPS) elk-freeing “Tomales Point Area Plan” (TPAP) for the Tule Elk Reserve at northernmost Point Reyes National Seashore. This would mean dismantling, finally, after years of activism and debate, the 8-foot-tall, 2-3-mile-long (depending on how you measure it) woven-wire and wood post fence which confines the largest of the park’s 3 herds of supposed-to-be wild Tule elk inside this national park unit just 20 miles north of San Francisco. Got all that?
The Coastal Commission approval, via their signing off on the Park Service’s “negative determination” of any potential environmental impacts of removing the 46-year-old elk fence, was the last bureaucratic hurdle that had to be cleared. The CCC’s approval was necessary, and this was the expected outcome. Which means both the Park Service and the Coastal Commission agree, at last, with what we activists have been saying all along: Free all the elk at Point Reyes.
Because wild elk are entirely different than domesticated cows-exploited-for-profit; they are an ecological benefit to wild lands, unlike cattle operations. The Reserve’s approximately 315 Tule elk don’t foul the ecosystem. They have evolved over thousands of years to contribute to it,. unlike the thousands of poor, abused domesticated ungulate counterparts forced into service at the park’s private beef and dairy operations. The heavier bodies of animals bred to feed humans, outnumbering elk at Point Reyes about 6 to 1, foul the park’s land, waterways and air with too much weight and trampling and manure and methane.
Freeing the park’s largest of three herds of Tule elk (from the “Reserve”at Tomales Point) has been a news-making, years-long, concerted, environmentalist and wild animal activist. TreeSpirit has been involved in this campaign for just over 4 years, in part because the issue involves more than just the welfare of this rare species of wild elk inside a national park unit.
Because elk have been kept fenced inside their so-called “Reserve” for only one reason: to benefit politically powerful private beef and dairy cattle ranchers who are tenants, not owners, on this public parkland.
The Marin Independent Journal, published this article about the Coastal Commission’s approval: https://www.marinij.com/2024/09/21/state-commission-approves-marin-tule-elk-fence-removal/
Note what this article does NOT disclose about Point Reyes:
- Cattle ranchers have been heavily subsidized for literally decades, and to this day, by U.S. taxpayers, to the tune of millions of dollars. Every year these “local” and “historic” and “family” and “organic” beef and dairy operators pay only about 50% (or less) of market value to lease public land from the Park Service;
- In return for cheap public land, these cow businesses-as-usual degrade the land, compact it, desiccate it and contaminate it with tens of thousands of pounds too much solid and also liquefied manure (spread over fields in an annual, nasal assault you can experience a mile away on windy day). Yum! Have you thanked your local Point Reyes rancher today?
- Ranchers lie about all this, either by omission, misdirection or deception. For example, now commonplace claims of “regenerative agriculture” are created to fool the public into thinking cow business which pollute land, waterways and atmosphere don’t. This requires not talking about their massive methane emissions, while instead misleading and misdirecting people with claims of carbon and methane reductions. READ MORE about the “regenerative” B.S. public relations story.
The Marin IJ parrots one rancher’s opinion — the tired old, oft-repeated, “oh-poor-us, those darn elk will put us out of business” pitiful pity story. Told by a man who sources some of his dairy’s milk from other ranchers’ cows inside Point Reyes park. (A bias also not revealed in the article). As usual, the rancher opposes letting wild elk run wild inside a National Park — because it doesn’t benefit his fellow dairymen who supply him with some of his cow’s milk.
Which begs the question: What does this (and every) cattleman think national parks are for? And do they even care what benefits the park and the general public? In practice, ranchers ignore and even deny why national parks were created in the first place: to be havens for the few remaining wild animals that haven’t (yet) been displaced and exterminated for the cattle business. A handful of wealthy cattlemen just keep fouling your public land, polluting the atmosphere with methane — while milking the public for millions in subsidies to turn a profit. To keep this scam operating, ranchers gotta keep serving up the P.R. bull.
We activists still fully expect the elk fence will come down, and that the Park Service will formally announce this in its “Final Decision” this autumn (2024). And then, turn plan into action; implementing the fence dismantling plan (TPAP) soon after. But we’ll all just have to wait & see.
And then the effort to finally oust polluting private cattle ranches) from this public park will continue, on a few different fronts, including two still-pending lawsuits. But those are stories for another blogpost.
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