A surprise announcement Wednesday says a dozen ranches at Point Reyes National Seashore will be phased out, giving native tule elk more freedom at the seashore/Rita Beamish file

A dozen ranches — six dairy and six beef — at Point Reyes National Seashore will close over the next 15 months, leading to their lands being managed for resource conservation by the National Park Service. Under the deal, native tule elk will be managed as one herd in Point Reyes and be allowed to expand within the park.

The surprise announcement Wednesday evening largely brings to an end a years-long controversy over whether ranching interests were a higher priority for the National Park Service than native wildlife at Point Reyes.

Under the agreement, The Nature Conservancy will acquire the ranches and then collaborate with the Park Service to manage the lands for resource conservation. 

"This is an exciting moment for Point Reyes National Seashore. Thanks to agreements between TNC and the closing ranch operations, the park’s future management will include additional opportunities for visitors, non-lethal management of native tule elk, and honors the co-stewardship agreement with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria," Point Reyes Superintendent Anne Altman said. "The NPS recognizes the important legacy of the multigenerational ranching families, whose contributions were important to the creation of Point Reyes National Seashore and we extend our heartfelt gratitude to the ranchers, TNC, litigation parties, and others who contributed to reaching this pivotal agreement."

The seashore also announced that as a result of the negotiated buyout, a lawsuit environmentalists brought in 2022 over Point Reyes' agriculture management plan has been settled.

Ranching has been part of life on the California peninsula on which the national seashore is set for some 150 years, and yet the industry's role in the establishment of the seashore has been and remains controversial. The seashore was established in 1962, and in the early 1970s existing ranchers were given a rare arrangement under federal leases created after the Park Service purchased their lands.

The seashore's administrative history notes ranchers' opposition to the seashore, but the Park Service on the seashore's website explains that ranchers came around to supporting the seashore due to development pressures creeping into the area.

While then-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in November 2012 refused to renew the lease of the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. at Point Reyes so Drakes Estero could be managed as official wilderness, he also directed the Park Service to work on extending ranching leases “from 10 to 20 years to provide greater certainty and clarity for the ranches operating within the national park’s Pastoral Zone and to support the continued presence of sustainable ranching and dairy operations."

A management plan adopted by the Park Service in the fall of 2021 would extend those leases and was crafted to serve as a "model where wilderness and ranching can coexist side-by-side," according to the Park Service.

But that agreement was never popular with conservationists, who in 2022 sued the Park Service over it. The Park Service has "prioritized the commercial needs of ranchers instead of providing maximum protection to the natural environment and supporting the public’s use and enjoyment of these majestic lands along the California coast," argued the lawsuit, filed by the Resource Renewal Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, and Western Watersheds Project.

The management plan addressed lands, resources, development, and visitor use in a 28,000-acre section of the national seashore. Outside groups immediately criticized it, claiming that 24 cattle and dairy operations that have operated within the seashore since its inception pollute and adversely impact the environment (water quality, methane emissions, erosion, fish habitat), the infrastructure (pavement degradation from milk trucks), and recreational opportunities.

The plan also allowed for culling of tule elk if population numbers get out of hand.

Leading up to TNC's deal-making, 14 dairy and beef ranchers held 21 leases that occupy approximately one-third of the entire seashore. The Park Service also manages ranches on 10,000 acres of the adjacent Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Together, these operations support 5,725 head of cattle, according to the national seashore’s 2021 decision to continue ranching for another 20 years.

The seashore's release Wednesday said that the Park Service will manage the ranch lands acquired by TNC "as part of the Scenic Landscape zone, which prioritizes resource conservation activities. To support conservation efforts, the NPS will issue a cooperative agreement and lease option to TNC enabling TNC and NPS to collaborate on natural resource restoration projects on lands where ranching will end. The selected action also authorizes ranching to continue in the GMPA’s Ranchland zone, and the NPS has issued 20-year leases to seven beef ranch families in the north district of Golden Gate. The NPS will also negotiate long-term leases for the two remaining beef ranches at Point Reyes. The selected action benefits native tule elk by providing increased habitat and disallowing lethal management of the tule elk population. Tule elk will be managed as one herd in Point Reyes, and elk will be allowed to expand within the park."

Severance packages, housing assistance packages, employee transition support services, and housing transition support services also will be offered to the rough 90 tenants living on the 12 ranches.

The signatories to the settlement agreement are the NPS, park ranchers who participated in the mediation, the Point Reyes Seashore Ranchers Association, The Nature Conservancy, Resource Renewal Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, and Western Watersheds Project.

Lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice's Environmental & Natural Resources Division and the Department of the Interior Solicitor’s Office negotiated the settlement on behalf of the government.