Point Reyes tule elk fence may come down, feds say

Signaling a potential shift in the management of wild tule elk in the Point Reyes National Seashore, the National Park Service is considering removing a fence that has separated its largest elk herd from private cattle ranches that lease parkland for more than four decades.

The park service is proposing to remove the 3-mile-long, 8-foot-tall fence at its 2,600-acre Tomales Point tule elk preserve located at the tip of the Tomales Bay peninsula. The change would allow the herd of nearly 300 elk to roam in other areas of the park.

Tule elk were reintroduced to the seashore in 1978 through the creation of the Tomales Point preserve. The preserve was lauded as an environmental success story because tule elk were once thought to have gone extinct decades earlier.

In response to concerns from neighboring ranchers about elk disrupting their operations, the park erected a fence to sequester the herd. Two free-roaming tule elk herds have also been established in the park since the late 1990s.

In recent years, the preserve’s fence has become a point of controversy in the larger debate over whether the park service should continue to rent parkland to private cattle and dairy ranches as it has done since the national seashore was founded in 1962.

The ranches have existed in what is now the national seashore dating back to the mid-19th century. A new management plan adopted by the park in 2021 would extend ranching leases to up to 20-year terms and would allow park staff to shoot some of the park’s free-roaming tule elk to reduce conflicts with ranches.

The debate has intensified after recent die-offs in the Tomales Point herd during droughts this past decade. The herd declined from 445 elk to 292 elk between the winters of 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. About 250 elk in the herd died from 2013-2015.

The most recent die-off prompted the park service to announce last year that it would revise its 1998 management plan for the Tomales Point herd. The new plan would consider changes to the management of the Tomales Point preserve as well as parts of the Phillip Burton wilderness area.

“Development of a new plan is based on the severity and frequency of two historic droughts in Marin County over the last decade and impacts to tule elk and other resources within the Tule Elk Reserve at Tomales Point,” the park service stated in its announcement. “Current management guidance for this area did not anticipate these drought conditions or consider climate change.”

Park Outreach Coordinator Melanie Gunn declined further comment on the proposal, citing ongoing federal litigation filed against the park service for its management of the Tomales Point herd.

The proposal now kicks off what is estimated to be a yearlong review process, beginning with public scoping and a virtual meeting later this summer. The park will draft various alternative options, which will be reviewed as part of an environmental assessment that will be released to the public at an undetermined date. The park service anticipates a final decision on the proposal in the summer of 2024.

The announcement has drawn mixed reactions among the park’s stakeholders. The proposal has also raised questions about how the park would manage the new free-roaming herd to reduce conflicts with neighboring ranches, including whether the park will consider an option to shoot some of the elk to regulate the herd size.

The Point Reyes Seashore Ranchers Association, which represents ranching families in the seashore and neighboring Golden Gate National Recreation Area, is opposing the park’s proposal.

The association stated in a letter to the park service that the park’s 1998 Tomales Point management plan considered the removal of the fence already and found that it could be implemented “only after ranching activities terminate.”

The ranch owners stated that the ranches are historic and cultural resources the park is charged with protecting. The letter states the park “should not reconsider the removal of the Tomales Point elk fence because certain members of the public don’t like the fence.”

“Here, drought conditions are new. Protecting ranch lands from elk impacts is not new,” the association wrote. “Removing or altering the fence is not appropriate or allowable. Fence removal was fully evaluated in 1998.”

Environmental organizations and activists who have urged the park to remove the fence, both in writing and through ongoing litigation, lauded the proposal.

“We see this as a significant course correction on the part of the park service in seashore management that is in favor of essentially returning to its core mission, which is to protect natural resources and wildlife for future and current generations,” said Chance Cutrano, programs director for the Fairfax-based Resource Renewal Institute environmental organization.

The group is suing the park service over its ranching and tule elk management plan and supports removing ranches from the seashore.

San Rafael resident Jack Gescheidt, the founder of the TreeSpirit Project and a consultant with In Defense of Animals environmental group, said he was “cautiously elated” by the proposal, though he said questions remain unanswered about the park’s announcement.

Gescheidt is a plaintiff in another federal lawsuit challenging the park’s management of the Tomales Point herd, which is now being considered by the appellate court.

“The pro wild elk community will once again be turning to the public to weigh in with comments and tell the park they want wild elk freed and private polluting cattle ranches removed from this national park unit,” Gescheidt said.

Neal Desai of the National Parks Conservation Association said in a statement, “We urge the agency to continue working to create balance at the seashore, which continues to be plagued by polluting ranching operations.”

The reintroduction of tule elk to the seashore has resulted in various conflicts with the ranching community through the decades, even before the elk arrived.

To create the Tomales Point preserve, the park had to evict the Pierce Point Ranch leaseholder, Merv McDonald, from the property, which resulted in a drawn-out legal battle.

“This rancher was not the original ranch owner, but a tenant rancher who moved in when the park obtained the property,” wrote Paul Sadin, a historian at the Seattle-based Historical Research Associates, who wrote a historical review for the park in 2007. “The rancher, however, refused to leave and took the NPS to court, eventually losing the case. Nonetheless, he remained at the ranch until the park finally obtained a writ of assistance to have him removed.”

The 1998 Tomales Point elk management plan also established the park’s first free-roaming herd, known as the Limantour herd. The plan did not provide direction on how to manage elk that wandered into pasture land, which began to occur.

In 2000, elk from the Limantour herd were observed heading west toward Drakes Beach, eventually establishing a new herd that was unintended by the park service. More conflicts have arisen since the Drakes Beach herd was established, including heifers being killed, competition arising for pastureland required for organic certification of dairies and property damage.

The park service’s new management plan allows park staff to shoot some of the Drakes Beach herd to keep the population at a maximum of 140 elk. The herd had 170 elk at the end of 2022, according to the park service, though the park service is currently not culling elk.

Rep. Jared Huffman, a Democrat from San Rafael, has supported the park’s plan to extend ranching leases. On Tuesday, Huffman was critical of the park’s notification of its proposal to remove the Tomales Point fence, stating it “blindsided” many stakeholders.

Huffman said removing the fence is something that could be explored but one that will require extensive stakeholder outreach and possible conflicts with existing ranching management.

While the proposed changes to the Tomales Point plan do not affect the park’s ranching management plan adopted in 2021, Huffman said he does not see how the park service can disconnect the two if it is considering removing the fence. The ranch management plan assumed the Tomales Point fence would remain in place, he said.

“I am interested in expanding elk habitat, but I want it done right,” Huffman said Tuesday. “And I’m a bit worried the park service just doesn’t have the left hand and the right hand talking with each other.”

Terri Thomas, president of the Marin Conservation League environmental group, said the park’s plan is consistent with her organization’s recommendations. Thomas said the league is looking for the park to study “changes in fencing and apply the plan to a larger geographic scope that addresses the need for providing connectivity in wildlife habitat and increasing forage and water resources for the Tomales Point herd.”

More information about the Tomales Point Area Plan update and upcoming meetings can be found at go.nps.gov/pore/tpap.