Following a lawsuit by the California Cattlemen’s Association (CCA), the National Park Service (NPS) halted its plan to remove eight-foot-tall elk fences in California’s Point Reyes National Seashore.
On Dec. 2, the NPS released its final plan for the Tomales Point area, which included removing tule elk enclosure fencing and all temporary water systems.
“The benefit of removing this enclosure is to allow elk to access additional habitat, increase the species’ population resilience during drought, and promote a more natural population cycle,” said Anne Altman, Point Reyes park superintendent.
The 2.2-mile-long fence was constructed to keep tule elk out of the “pastoral zone,” where cattle ranchers and dairy farmers raise their livestock. Producers contend the elk compete with cattle for grass and forage, knock down fences and pose a risk for spreading disease.
Just a day after NPS announced its management plan, the agency began removing the fence. By the time CCA filed suit on Dec. 3, 850 feet of the fenceline had already been removed—a gap the association said was plenty big enough for elk to begin encroaching on farms and ranches.
At a Dec. 6 hearing, NPS agreed to stop further fence removal.
Case details
In a lawsuit filed Dec. 3, CCA said its members needed immediate relief from the harm that will be caused by migration of tule elk into the pastoral zone.
On Dec. 4, CCA filed a temporary restraining order. At the Dec. 6 hearing, the court ordered NPS to stop removing the fence or take any action to move elk out of the area until the forthcoming preliminary injunction motion was decided. A motion hearing is set for Feb. 13.
CCA noted association members ranch on the Point Reyes National Seashore under NPS permits, and submitted timely comments against the proposal to remove the fencing from the pastoral zone during the Tomales Point plan comment period.
“The Pastoral Zone and other areas of the Park make a unified whole that honors the inclusion of ranch land for the park and preserves the ranches and ranching lifestyle while also providing thousands of acres of public recreation and wildlife services,” CCA said in court documents.
CCA continued that as time passes, many people forget that the Point Reyes National Seashore exists because of the cooperation of the original landowners who wanted to see their ranches preserved in the face of development in the area.
“The only thing these ranching families asked was that they continue to operate the ranches within a pastoral zone of the National Seashore, for their own families and as a public amenity of the new federal recreational resource,” CCA said.
Tule elk were nearly extirpated in the area several decades earlier but were reintroduced in the ’70s and largely managed by keeping the elk out of the pastoral zone with fencing, CCA explained. Many ranchers have niche certifications for their operations that could be jeopardized by the elk intruding on the pastoral zone, which would be devastating to ranching, the suit continued.
A 2021 NPS management plan extended ranching permits in the pastoral zone for 20 years and also decided to keep the existing elk fence in place. Therefore, it was surprising when NPS made the decision to remove the elk fence, following what the CCA described as a flawed environmental review process.
“CCA will continue to keep members apprised of our efforts to preserve the proud history of ranching at the Point Reyes National Seashore as the case develops,” the organization said in a California Cattleman Weekly e-newsletter. — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
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