{"id":37780,"date":"2025-02-26T00:01:15","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T05:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?p=37780"},"modified":"2025-02-28T19:04:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T00:04:38","slug":"organic-agriculture-and-nature-forced-farm-closures-point-reyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2025\/02\/organic-agriculture-and-nature-forced-farm-closures-point-reyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Coexistence of Organic Agriculture and Nature Interrupted by Forced Farm Closures at Point Reyes National Seashore"},"content":{"rendered":"

*** Beyond Pesticides has recently received an insulting broadside from an environmental group; click here<\/a> to read the original email and a response from the organization that includes a deep history of Beyond Pesticides\u2019 commitment to ecological and organic farming practices in local food systems that are just.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

(Beyond Pesticides<\/em>, February 26, 2025) The National Park Service (NPS) recently announced<\/a> a settlement agreement<\/a> regarding the management of northern California\u2019s Point Reyes National Seashore<\/a> (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\u2014at least 90 farmworker families\u2014and 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.<\/p>\n

Over the decades since PRNS\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

As Andy Naja-Riese, executive director of the Agricultural Institute of Marin<\/a>, puts it<\/a>, \u201cThe greatest threat to the tule elk is not cattle; it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Background and History<\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/a>. 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\u2019 history of the region describes<\/a>, \u201cmost likely the byproduct of burning, weeding, pruning, and harvesting for at least two millennia by Coast Miwok and their antecedents.\u201d Today, approximately 20 multigenerational farming families remain in the park with approximately 200 farmworkers and their families.<\/p>\n

This settlement agreement follows years of wrangling between Western Watersheds Project<\/a>, the Center for Biological Diversity<\/a>, and the Resource Renewal Institute<\/a> as plaintiffs<\/a> against NPS and individual ranchers. The plaintiffs first filed a lawsuit against NPS in 2016<\/a> 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\u2019s legal obligations to the natural environment.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, bringing the funding necessary to finalize an agreement. In January 2025, NPS announced a settlement<\/a> agreement in which six dairy and six beef ranches will close within 15 months\u2014former 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.<\/p>\n

Among the multiple concerns voiced by advocates is the apparent lack of transparency<\/a> in the negotiation process or the settlement agreement itself. \u201cI think that for me, the big challenge is that a decision was made for us, without us,\u201d said<\/a> Mr. Naja-Riese. Unlike all other NPS planning processes, local stakeholders\u2014including farmworkers and local business owners whose livelihoods will be decimated\u2014were 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<\/a> on January 11 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<\/a> 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<\/a>, \u201cI\u2019m 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?\u201d<\/p>\n

[Notably, some local indigenous representatives of the Miwok tribe protest<\/a> their lack of inclusion [in the mediated settlement process\u2014Updated from original text on February 27, 2025.<\/em>]\u00a0Long-term management<\/a> 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\u2019s ability to support it\u2014hunting is not allowed within the borders of the national park.]<\/p>\n

Post Settlement: The Future of PRNS and Resulting Impacts<\/em><\/p>\n

In the wake of the ranching operations, the landscape of PRNS will look decidedly different. The Nature Conservancy has agreed to \u201cco-manage\u201d the restoration of the 16,000 acres of former ranch land as a \u201cScenic Landscape,\u201d 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<\/em> reports<\/a>, Ms. Patterson said, \u201c\u2026my concern was, it doesn\u2019t take care of the problems. It just removes the ranchers from the seashore. It doesn\u2019t clean up the waterways. It doesn\u2019t manage the grasslands to keep them from becoming a fire hazard. It was just to buy out the leases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last several decades, many of the ranches slated for closure, such as Mendoza<\/a> and BN Ranch, have become leaders in organic and regenerative agriculture, as well as Marin Sun Farms,<\/a> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The impact of these closures goes beyond the Point Reyes Seashore, with significant economic and food production implications. Straus Family Creamery,<\/a> which operates its own certified organic farm<\/a> and creamery<\/a> 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\u2014and those of its organic dairy suppliers\u2014to carbon neutrality by 2030. According to Straus, \u201cWhat I\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

[In 2013, Straus Organic Dairy Farm became the first dairy farm in California to develop a carbon farm<\/a> plan, with the Marin Carbon Project,<\/a> updated in collaboration with the Marin Resource Conservation District<\/a> and the Marin Agricultural Land Trust<\/a>. Their practices reduced overall carbon emissions by experimenting with red seaweed cattle feed<\/a>, 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 \u201ccarbon farm plan.\u201d]<\/p>\n

Albert Straus, founder of Straus Family Creamery, which manages the organic dairy, points out that climate change is wreaking havoc<\/a> on traditional dairy and cattle operations. \u201cBy getting rid of these small family farms, we\u2019re forcing dairy farms to get bigger and bigger and the whole food system to be less environmentally<\/u> friendly and produce lower-quality food that\u2019s not organic,\u201d Mr. Straus said<\/a> in 2023. \u201cI think this could be the demise of our farming and food system.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a> and Marin Conservation League<\/a>. \u201cThe farmers and ranchers and farmworkers and the people who grow our food are environmentalists, and we need to start a conversation about agriculture environmentalism,\u201d concludes<\/a> Mr. Naja-Riese.<\/p>\n

Late Breaking Lawsuit<\/em><\/p>\n

A new legal challenge emerged<\/a> on February 21, 2025, when attorney Andrew Giacomini filed a federal lawsuit to block the ranch closures, alleging a \u201cconspiracy\u201d between the National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy. The suit claims that the agencies deliberately created uncertainty for ranchers and that \u201cthe 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\u2019 property to the Conservancy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Path Forward to a Livable Future<\/em><\/p>\n

Beyond Pesticides has long advocated<\/a> for the transition to organic and regenerative agricultural systems to urgently address<\/a> 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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which diverts public attention away from organic with a weakly definition of \u2018regenerative agriculture\u2019). 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<\/a>, \u201cThe 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 \u2013 from organic dairies to regenerative ranches to artisanal cheese visionaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Join Beyond Pesticides<\/a> in taking action to end the use of petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers! The path forward includes increased support<\/a> for research and implementation of organic and regenerative-organic practices, as well as policy measures<\/a> and financial support for farmers making the choice to transition to certified organic agriculture<\/a>. In reflecting on the impacts of this litigation\u2019s 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\u2014it is about charting a course in pursuit of a livable future<\/a> for ourselves, our neighbors, our communities, and for the generations to come.<\/p>\n

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sources<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

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,<\/a> National Park Service announcement, January 8, 2025.<\/p>\n

Secret deal brokered by The Nature Conservancy to end ranching era in Point Reyes National Seashore faced opposition from outset<\/a>, The Press Democrat<\/em>, February 8, 2025.<\/p>\n

Inside the secret Nature Conservancy deal to end ranching in Point Reyes National Seashore<\/a>, The Press Democrat<\/em>, January 29, 2025.<\/p>\n

2025 Record of Decision:<\/a> General Management Plan Amendment and Environmental Impact Statement: Settlement Agreement, Point Reyes National Seashore<\/a>, National Park Service website, January 8, 2025.<\/p>\n

Historic Agreement on Cattle Ranching and Wildlife Management at Point Reyes National Seashore Ends Decades of Conflict,<\/a> The Nature Conservancy announcement, January 9, 2025.<\/p>\n

2021 Record of Decision: General Management Plan Amendment and Environmental Impact Statement<\/a>,\u00a0 Point Reyes National Seashore<\/a>, National Park Service, September 13, 2021.<\/p>\n

Reducing Cow Methane Emissions,<\/a> Straus Family Creamery website.<\/p>\n

Can Point Reyes National Seashore Support Wildlife and Ranching Amid Climate Change?<\/a> Civil Eats<\/em>, October 17, 2023.<\/p>\n

Judge halts controversial fence removal in Point Reyes<\/a>, SF Gate<\/em>, December 10, 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*** Beyond Pesticides has recently received an insulting broadside from an environmental group; click here to read the original email and a response from the organization that includes a deep history of Beyond Pesticides\u2019 commitment to ecological and organic farming practices in local food systems that are just.\u00a0 (Beyond Pesticides, February 26, 2025) The National Park Service (NPS) recently announced a settlement agreement regarding the management of northern California\u2019s 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\u2014at least 90 farmworker families\u2014and 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\u2019 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[249,2,20,539,54,565,60,503,62,425,413,593,2010,1],"tags":[1057,2018,2015,859,428,673,2017,1893,2016,2011,2013,2012,915],"class_list":["post-37780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","category-alternativesorganics","category-california","category-climate","category-climate-change","category-ecosystem-services","category-environmental-justice","category-indigenous-people","category-litigation","category-livestock","category-regenerative","category-soil-health","category-straus","category-uncategorized","tag-california","tag-local-food-systems","tag-marin","tag-national-park-service","tag-organic","tag-organic-agriculture","tag-organic-dairy","tag-organic-farmers","tag-organic-ranching","tag-point-reyes","tag-prns","tag-pt-reyes","tag-regenerative-organic"],"yoast_head":"\nHistoric Coexistence of Organic Agriculture and Nature Interrupted by Forced Farm Closures at Point Reyes National Seashore - 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The founders, who established Beyond Pesticides (originally as National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides) as a nonprofit membership organization in 1981, felt that without the existence of such an organized, national network, local, state and national pesticide policy would become, under chemical industry pressure, increasingly unresponsive to public health and environmental concerns. Beyond Pesticides believes that people must have a voice in decisions that affect them directly. We believe decisions should not be made for us by chemical companies or by decision-makers who either do not have all of the facts or refuse to consider them. Learn more about our work, read A Year in Review\u20142021, our accomplishments are your victories! Beyond Pesticides seeks to protect healthy air, water, land, and food for ourselves and future generations. By forging ties with governments, nonprofits, and people who rely on these natural resources, we reduce the need for unnecessary pesticide use and protect public health and the environment. Beyond Pesticides provides hands-on services to the public and supports local action by: identifying and interpreting hazards; and, designing safe pest management programs. With the information provided by Beyond Pesticides, people may not only be able to make informed choices and adopt practices that protect themselves and their families from unnecessary exposure to pesticides, but they will be able to effect changes on community-wide pest management decisions and policies that govern pesticide use, such as pesticide uses in parks, schools, for community insect control and along roadsides. 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