California red-legged frog<\/a> are designated as \u201cthreatened species\u201d under the ESA, meaning that they likely to become danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of their ranges in the foreseeable future if current trends continue.<\/p>\nFor the salmon and steelhead populations, pollution from livestock operations is one of the biggest threats to their survival, because erosion and siltation from cattle overgrazing smothers the spawning gravels where salmon and steelhead lay their eggs, killing the eggs and ending reproductive success. While there may be other factors also affecting the survival odds of all of these species, on Point Reyes National Seashore cattle pose a significant threat to each. In its denial, the Park Service is clearly trying to cover up its complicity and culpability for extending livestock leasing on Park Service lands, while abrogating its affirmative responsibility to protect and recover rare species of fish and wildlife.<\/p>\n
The Bohemian<\/em> decried the fence imprisoning what it characterized as some of \u201cthe world\u2019s few remaining tule elk,\u201d described as \u201ca federally protected species,\u201d and its role in elk die-offs related to a lack of fresh water. The Park Service argues that tule elk aren\u2019t presently a listed species under the ESA. That\u2019s true, but beside the point. Tule elk are extremely rare, globally, without question, and the Park Service has a legal obligation to protect all<\/em> native wildlife on NPS units. Tule elk warrant listing based on the science, and if the Park Service doesn\u2019t start protecting them on Point Reyes, their actions will put tule elk on the fast track to listing.<\/p>\nThe Park Service further argues that it never admitted that drought and thirst were the cause of past die-offs behind the fence, instead pointing to studies that suggest nutritional deficiencies could be the cause of deaths instead. But the Park Service didn\u2019t perform necropsies on each elk that perished during the die-offs, so it doesn\u2019t know which elk died from thirst, and which ones died from starvation. And while it\u2019s known that the soils on Tomales Point are deficient in key nutrients that elk need to survive, this point only underscores the reality that confining tule elk on Tomales Point behind an 8-foot-high fence is completely irresponsible, and that the fence needs to come down so that elk can have freedom to roam throughout Point Reyes National Seashore and seek out the food and water they need to survive.<\/p>\n
The Park Service quibbles with The Bohemian\u2019s<\/em> assertion that \u201cthe ranching industry covering one third of the park should be expanded and protected\u201d under the proposed plan. The agency has no legitimate complaint with this claim. The Bohemian<\/em> didn\u2019t say that ranching would be expanded spatially, and the Park Service\u2019s proposal would in fact expand the different types of permitted uses, adding new classes of livestock and allowing many other new commercial activities, beyond those already degrading Park lands and destroying Park resources.<\/p>\nThe Park Service engages in some hair-splitting about whether $57.5 million in taxpayer dollars were appropriated to buy out the ranchers, or to acquire \u201call of the lands, waters and improvements\u201d on the National Seashore. This is a distinction without a difference, given that the overwhelming majority of lands, waters, and improvements that were bought out were bought from the ranchers. The Park Service also contests The Bohemian\u2019s<\/em> claim that most ranchers signed below-market leases \u2014 during the 1960s and 1970s \u2014 and agreed to vacate within 25 years, arguing that \u201cThe park\u2019s enabling legislation gives the Secretary of the Interior the discretionary authority to offer agricultural lease\/permits.\u201d In truth, the original enabling legislation didn\u2019t give the Park Service discretion to extend leases (as long as the agency satisfies its legal obligations to protect the environment, which it is not doing, by the way); that came later by amendment. Subsequent amendments also limited leases to just 25 years or the life of the original occupants. So the Park Service has a limited authority to extend livestock leases further, but the ranchers have no right to expect that to last more than 25 years from the original purchase, or the lifespan of the original owners. The Bohemian<\/em> is essentially right, and the Park Service is providing an unwarranted \u201ccorrection\u201d to a factually true statement.<\/p>\nIn the final analysis, The Bohemian<\/em> was right in almost all of its assertions, and technically incorrect on the formal title of the National Seashore. The Park Service was wrong on almost every point it tried to make, even though, as the manager of Point Reyes National Seashore, it ought to be expected by its bosses \u2013 the American taxpayers \u2013 to have the subject-matter expertise to know what it is talking about.<\/p>\nThe Park Service\u2019s actions must be interpreted in the context of many years of political pressure by the livestock industry \u2014 and politicians in the industry\u2019s pocket \u2014 and the concurrent (and perhaps inevitable) bureaucratic instinct of government officials everywhere to go along to get along, and not make waves. Point Reyes has always been a pressure cooker for its employees, where supporting the livestock industry\u2019s hegemony was a necessary evil for career survival and advancement.<\/p>\n
The political corruption surrounding the intersection of livestock interests and conservation in this may well go beyond just Point Reyes National Seashore. Another local newspaper reported<\/a> on allegations that ranching interests rigged property sales to financially benefit the board members of a local land trust. This appears to be a whole region seething with corruption, with the livestock industry right at the heart of it.<\/p>\nBut perhaps the more troubling aspect is that of a Park Service unit that is supposed to be acting in the public interest, but instead seems to be engaging in fake-news peddling and spin control in a desperate effort to tell the public what to think. This seems a holdover from a systematic Trump administration policy to undermine the credibility of the media and propagate false narratives to achieve their political goals. There\u2019s a new administration in town now, and it\u2019s long past time for federal agencies to abandon the failed policies \u2014 media, anti-environmental, pro-industry, and otherwise \u2014 of the old administration.<\/p>\n
The Park Service management at Point Reyes National Seashore shouldn\u2019t have a political agenda, and shouldn\u2019t be engaged in spin and disinformation. They should be responding to the will of the people, and protecting the environment as federal laws require of them. The Bohemian<\/em> should continue shining its investigative light into the dark recesses of Point Reyes. And the public should continue to demand honesty, integrity, and environmental protection on Point Reyes National Seashore.<\/p>\n\nThis post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Point Reyes Beach from the Lighthouse Visitor Center \u2013 CC BY-SA 3.0 Grab your popcorn: The battle over livestock destruction of natural ecosystems at Point Reyes National Seashore\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1149,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48506"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48507,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48506\/revisions\/48507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}