Historic Coexistence of Organic Agriculture and Nature Interrupted by Forced Farm Closures at Point Reyes National Seashore

26
Feb

Historic Coexistence of Organic Agriculture and Nature Interrupted by Forced Farm Closures at Point Reyes National Seashore

(Beyond Pesticides, February 26, 2025) The National Park Service (NPS) recently announced a settlement agreement regarding the management of northern California’s Point Reyes National Seashore (PRNS) that will result in the closure of 12 out of 14 historic dairy and cattle ranches, including those organically managed, within the park. This decision comes after nearly a decade of legal disputes and negotiations between environmental groups, ranchers, and the NPS. Ending 170 years of family ranching, displacing multi-generational farmers—at least 90 farmworker families—and abandoning 77 historic ranch buildings. Critics lambast the agreement as devastating local organic agriculture and food production in West Marin County, which is essential for creating long-term climate solutions.

Over the decades since PRNS’ inception, local and national environmental groups have litigated against ranchers and the National Park Service, including demanding range expansion for the native tule elk, which were reintroduced to the park by NPS in the 1970s. However, the removal of these farms, and the accompanying loss of local food production, will have extreme long-term negative impacts on the local community and the environment, according to many environmental advocates.

As Andy Naja-Riese, executive director of the Agricultural Institute of Marin, puts it, “The greatest threat to the tule elk is not cattle; it’s global climate change, and what we can all do [to fight that threat] is preserve our local food system… We need to stop vilifying and attacking animal agriculture. Animal agriculture, when done right through organic, climate-smart, and regenerative practices, is a climate solution.”

Background and History

Across the 70,000 acres of PRNS, NPS leases 18,000 to commercial beef and dairy ranches, many to the same families who have lived and ranched on the land for generations. When Point Reyes National Seashore was established in 1962, a compromise allowed existing ranches to continue operating under NPS lease agreements to balance the continuation of historic agricultural practices with the preservation of natural landscapes. Some ranches are even listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The ideal farming and ranching conditions of the expansive coastal prairie are not only due to long growing seasons, moist, cool conditions adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, but also, as NPS’ history of the region describes, “most likely the byproduct of burning, weeding, pruning, and harvesting for at least two millennia by Coast Miwok and their antecedents.” Today, approximately 20 multigenerational farming families remain in the park with approximately 200 farmworkers and their families.

This settlement agreement follows years of wrangling between Western Watersheds Project, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Resource Renewal Institute as plaintiffs against NPS and individual ranchers. The plaintiffs first filed a lawsuit against NPS in 2016 for water quality violations resulting from ranch operations in the park. While the first lawsuit was settled, the group brought a second lawsuit in 2020, arguing that the recently renewed 20-year leases violated NPS’s legal obligations to the natural environment.

Negotiations between the parties were stalled until 2022 when two groups of beef and dairy ranchers, including the Point Reyes Seashore Ranchers Association, joined the mediation effort. In 2023, The Nature Conservancy joined the negotiations, bringing the funding necessary to finalize an agreement. In January 2025, NPS announced a settlement agreement in which six dairy and six beef ranches will close within 15 months—former leaseholders will be compensated through a $30 million settlement fund. In a last-minute addition, 90 ranch employees and their families will receive compensation and relocation assistance.

Among the multiple concerns voiced by advocates is the apparent lack of transparency in the negotiation process or the settlement agreement itself. “I think that for me, the big challenge is that a decision was made for us, without us,” said Mr. Naja-Riese. Unlike all other NPS planning processes, local stakeholders—including farmworkers and local business owners whose livelihoods will be decimated—were not invited to participate. The amounts of the lease buy-outs, severance packages, and relocation assistance also have not been disclosed. During a town hall meeting on January 8 hosted by U.S. House Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA) to announce the mediated settlement, a wide range of local stakeholders spoke with anger and concern about the secretive mediation process that excluded key stakeholders as well as the dramatic impact the closure of the ranches will have on the wider West Marin County community and economy. Jasmine Bravo, a local advocate, asked, “I’m just wondering if you all have a plan for a workforce after the residents who live on ranches have been evicted, and you lose Isabel at the clinic, and my sister at the clinic, and Gabriel Romo at the bank, and everyone who works at the grocery stores and makes your food?”

[Notably, some local indigenous representatives of the Miwok tribe protest their lack of inclusion. Long-term management of the tule elk herd remains one of the outstanding questions. Others are concerned as the herd, free from competition with cattle and absent natural predators, may quickly exceed the land’s ability to support it—hunting is not allowed within the borders of the national park.]

Post Settlement: The Future of PRNS and Resulting Impacts

In the wake of the ranching operations, the landscape of PRNS will look decidedly different. The Nature Conservancy has agreed to “co-manage” the restoration of the 16,000 acres of former ranch land as a “Scenic Landscape,” which will be opened to use by the tule elk, as well as other wildlife, although how this effort will be funded has not been disclosed. Liebe Patterson, a long-time donor to The Nature Conservancy declined to contribute to the buy-out fund for that very reason. As the Press Democrat reports, Ms. Patterson said, “…my concern was, it doesn’t take care of the problems. It just removes the ranchers from the seashore. It doesn’t clean up the waterways. It doesn’t manage the grasslands to keep them from becoming a fire hazard. It was just to buy out the leases.”

Over the last several decades, many of the ranches slated for closure, such as Mendoza and BN Ranch, have become leaders in organic and regenerative agriculture, as well as Marin Sun Farms, a certified organic and Animal Welfare Approved facility. Marin Sun Farms is one of six beef ranch operations to close and also operates the last remaining USDA-inspected slaughterhouse in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The impact of these closures goes beyond the Point Reyes Seashore, with significant economic and food production implications. Straus Family Creamery, which operates its own certified organic farm and creamery just outside PRNS and has long been at the forefront of organic dairy farming, sources a third of its organic milk from the ranches in the park. Second-generation owner Albert Straus works closely with PRNS ranchers to pioneer a range of internationally recognized innovative practices with the goal of bringing its operations—and those of its organic dairy suppliers—to carbon neutrality by 2030. According to Straus, “What I’ve tried to do is create a sustainable organic farming model that is good for the earth, the soil, the animals, and the people working on these farms, and helps revitalize rural communities.”

[In 2013, Straus Organic Dairy Farm became the first dairy farm in California to develop a carbon farm plan, with the Marin Carbon Project, updated in collaboration with the Marin Resource Conservation District and the Marin Agricultural Land Trust. Their practices reduced overall carbon emissions by experimenting with red seaweed cattle feed, implementing the use of a biodigester, and switching to electric farm vehicles, some of which are powered by methane captured from cattle operations and converted to fuel for farm vehicles. Straus currently provides technical expertise and assistance for ranches to develop their own “carbon farm plan.”]

Albert Straus, founder of Straus Family Creamery, which manages the organic dairy, points out that climate change is wreaking havoc on traditional dairy and cattle operations. “By getting rid of these small family farms, we’re forcing dairy farms to get bigger and bigger and the whole food system to be less environmentally friendly and produce lower-quality food that’s not organic,” Mr. Straus said in 2023. “I think this could be the demise of our farming and food system.”

Many local farming practices that will be terminated ultimately provide ecosystem benefits that are compatible with environmental conservation, with the ranchers supported by local conservation groups, including the Marin Agricultural Land Trust and Marin Conservation League. “The farmers and ranchers and farmworkers and the people who grow our food are environmentalists, and we need to start a conversation about agriculture environmentalism,” concludes Mr. Naja-Riese.

Late Breaking Lawsuit

A new legal challenge emerged on February 21, 2025, when attorney Andrew Giacomini filed a federal lawsuit to block the ranch closures, alleging a “conspiracy” between the National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy. The suit claims that the agencies deliberately created uncertainty for ranchers and that “the National Park Service, Acting Director, and Regional Director conspired with the Conservancy to pay off the departing ranchers in exchange for the ranchers relinquishing their rights to 20-year leases and instead leasing the ranchers’ property to the Conservancy.”

The complaint focuses on the displacement of over 90 residents, mostly Latino families, many of whom have lived on these properties for decades. Also, ranchers reportedly face reduced compensation if residents remain on their properties after operations cease. The suit was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

The Path Forward to a Livable Future

Beyond Pesticides has long advocated for the transition to organic and regenerative agricultural systems to urgently address the environmental and health challenges posed by conventional agriculture. The situation at PRNS serves as a critical reminder of the need to support and expand these practices. As we face the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, it is imperative that we prioritize agricultural systems that work in harmony with nature rather than against it. The loss of PRNS ranches represents not just a loss of local food production, but also a setback in the advancement of sustainable agricultural practices that are crucial for our future.

Beyond Pesticides joins advocates calling on policymakers, environmental organizations, and the public to recognize the vital role that organic agriculture can play in addressing our most pressing environmental challenges (see the recent decision by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which diverts public attention away from organic with a weakly definition of ‘regenerative agriculture’). Rather than viewing agriculture and conservation as opposing forces, we must seek solutions that integrate sustainable food production with ecosystem preservation. As Marin Agricultural Land Trust remarks, “The story of agriculture in Marin County has never been a straight line. Instead, it is a story of innovation and resilience, of ranchers and farmers who have faced challenges and stepped into the role of changemakers – from organic dairies to regenerative ranches to artisanal cheese visionaries.”

Join Beyond Pesticides in taking action to end the use of petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers! The path forward includes increased support for research and implementation of organic and regenerative-organic practices, as well as policy measures and financial support for farmers making the choice to transition to certified organic agriculture. In reflecting on the impacts of this litigation’s mediated settlement that will inexorably change this multi-generational agricultural community in Point Reyes, let us use this moment to redouble our efforts. It is not just about preserving a way of life or a local food system—it is about charting a course in pursuit of a livable future for ourselves, our neighbors, our communities, and for the generations to come.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources:

Point Reyes National Seashore Announces Revised Record of Decision for General Management Plan Amendment and Settlement Agreement on the Management of Ranching on Park Lands, National Park Service announcement, January 8, 2025.

Secret deal brokered by The Nature Conservancy to end ranching era in Point Reyes National Seashore faced opposition from outset, The Press Democrat, February 8, 2025.

Inside the secret Nature Conservancy deal to end ranching in Point Reyes National Seashore, The Press Democrat, January 29, 2025.

2025 Record of Decision: General Management Plan Amendment and Environmental Impact Statement: Settlement Agreement, Point Reyes National Seashore, National Park Service website, January 8, 2025.

Historic Agreement on Cattle Ranching and Wildlife Management at Point Reyes National Seashore Ends Decades of Conflict, The Nature Conservancy announcement, January 9, 2025.

2021 Record of Decision: General Management Plan Amendment and Environmental Impact Statement, Point Reyes National Seashore, National Park Service, September 13, 2021.

Reducing Cow Methane Emissions, Straus Family Creamery website.

Can Point Reyes National Seashore Support Wildlife and Ranching Amid Climate Change? Civil Eats, October 17, 2023.

Judge halts controversial fence removal in Point Reyes, SF Gate, December 10, 2024.