Point Reyes tule elk herds recover after die-off during drought

Tule elk herds in the Point Reyes National Seashore rebounded this winter following a significant die-off during the drought, according to new National Park Service data.

The seashore, which is the only park in the country with tule elk, has three herds. The largest, located in a fenced reserve on Tomales Point, increased from 221 elk in 2021 to 262 elk, an increase of nearly 19%.

The Limantour herd, which is one of two free-roaming herds, increased from 151 elk to 170 from 2021 to 2022. Park staff said they were unable to conduct a count of the other free-roaming herd, the Drakes Beach herd, this winter because of weather conditions and staffing limitations.

“National Park Service wildlife staff are instead tracking elk numbers from the Limantour herd within active ranching areas of the park for comparison to prior years and checking cow groups in the Phillip Burton Wilderness for a qualitative sense of calf production in 2022,” park official Melanie Gunn said.

The park’s management of the Tomales Point herd has been met with pushback from environmental groups following the recent die-off.

The herd, whose enclosed reserve is 2,900 acres, declined from 445 elk to 292 elk between the winters of 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, when the county was experiencing a significant drought. The die-off prompted the park to make the unprecedented decision to place water troughs and mineral licks in the reserve in 2021.

In 2021, Harvard Law School’s Animal Law and Policy Clinic filed a federal lawsuit alleging the Point Reyes National Seashore was negligent in its elk management and violated federal law. The lawsuit stated the park specifically violated the Administrative Procedure Act, a broad statute regulating rule-making and judicial review of federal agencies’ decisions.

Last month, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court of Northern California ruled in favor of the park and dismissed the lawsuit.

“As the Court has previously explained, it is not indifferent to the conditions facing the tule elk,” Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. wrote in the Feb. 27 order. “But plaintiffs have not identified a viable legal basis that would entitle them, or the court, to intervene in the park service’s wildlife management decisions.”

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Watershed Alliance of Marin steering committee member Laura Chariton, wildlife photographer Skyler Thomas, San Rafael resident Jack Gescheidt of the TreeSpirit Project, and the Animal Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization in Cotati.

Gescheidt said he and the other plaintiffs plan to appeal the decision to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The park service declined to comment on the judge’s decision.

Last year, the park service began an effort to revise its 1998 management plan for the Tomales Point herd, including options to remove the 3-mile, 8-foot-tall fence to allow the elk to roam through the rest of the park or allow park staff to shoot some elk to control the population.

The park service adopted a separate management plan for its free-roaming tule elk herds in 2021 that would allow staff to shoot some tule elk to prevent conflicts with private cattle ranches that lease parkland. That management plan has also been challenged in federal court by environmental organizations.

While the park service states that the tule elk herd populations are regulated by natural conditions, Gescheidt and other plaintiffs said there is nothing natural about keeping tule elk in a fenced enclosure at Tomales Point or about ranch fences restricting herds to certain areas.

“Elk will continue to suffer and die as long as they are trapped in the fenced reserve, really a zoo,” Gescheidt said. “The park service calls all this death ‘natural,’ ignoring the grisly, lethal effect of the fences. Not just three, but 300 miles of Point Reyes fences exist in this national park for one reason only: so private cattle ranchers can continue making money, subsidized by the public. In return, ranching pollutes the water with manure, and fences out not just elk, but the public that owns the land.”

The establishment of the Tomales Point elk herd in 1978 was an ecological success story in California. Tule elk were brought to the brink of extinction in the 19th century from hunting and habitat loss. Tule elk are native to Point Reyes National Seashore.

The park service plans to issue a notice of intent to begin preparing an environmental impact statement for its Tomales Point elk herd plan this spring, which will include a 30-day public comment period.

More information on the Tomales Point elk management plan update can be found at go.nps.gov/pore/tpap