The park service will begin a yearlong review process to assess removing the Tomales Point Elk Preserve fence and allow the park’s largest tule elk herd to roam free.
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.
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.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 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 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.” “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 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.
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