Park Service Announces Plan to Kill Tule Elk to Appease Ranchers in Point Reyes

The National Park Service has unveiled its plan to extend the leases of ranchers in Point Reyes National Seashore, which will include killing some of the Drake’s Beach tule elk that roam the nearby area.

Point Reyes, sitting north of San Francisco on the California coast, is home to a flourishing wildlife population, including elephant seals, black-tailed deer, great blue herons and bobcats. But the species that has flourished the most are the tule elk, and it’s becoming a big problem for dairy farmers.

The Point Reyes elk is one of the largest herds in California, and because they’ve taken up a home at residence of the grassy fields near Drakes Beach, they are competing with dairy cows for grass feeding. So when the National Park Service released its final plan to extend the leases of the ranches within the park from 5-years to 20-years, it included limiting the population of the competing tule elk.

The plan calls for reducing and limiting the tule elk population to 120. The herd currently sits at 138.

Environmentalists staunchly object the plan, saying it would sabotage a decade-long successful reintroduction of the elk to the region. Tule elk, once sitting at populations near 500,000, were hunted to near extinction during the Gold Rush. Now the population sits around 3,800.

“The plan would destroy wildlife habitat, harm endangered species, degrade water quality and lead to killing of some of the park’s most iconic wildlife, including tule elk,” said The Center for Biological Diversity Spokesman Jeff Miller in a written statement.

But the plan isn’t as simple as that. At the center of the thinning sits the dairy farmers, who pay rent to raise cattle on the land and have existed at Point Reyes since the 1860’s. In fact, when President John F. Kennedy signed the bill that acquired the land as a national park, part of the deal was allowing the dairy farmers to stay in the area. The government bought the land from the farmers and they have been paying rent ever since, a deal that was critical for the designation of the park.

“What we would like to see is, put the elk, keep them separate from the working farms and ranches, keep them separate in the 70 percent of the wilderness area,” said longtime rancher Bob McClure. “They’re fine there! We do not dislike elk.”

The current 30-day waiting period to give final approval on the project will end on October 18. Environmental groups have stated that they’re prepared to fight the plan, which they say violates conservation law.

Active NorCal

Telling the Stories of Northern California

79 Comments

  1. Does your site have a contact page? I’m having problems locating it but,
    I’d like to shoot you an email. I’ve got some creative ideas
    for your blog you might be interested in hearing.
    Either way, great blog and I look forward to seeing it improve
    over time.

  2. Hi there to every body, it’s my first go to see of this web site;
    this webpage contains remarkable and in fact excellent information for readers.

  3. Greetings! Very helpful advice within this post!
    It’s the little changes that make the biggest changes.
    Thanks a lot for sharing!

  4. Hello There. I found your weblog the use of msn. This
    is a really well written article. I’ll be sure
    to bookmark it and come back to learn more of your helpful info.

    Thank you for the post. I will definitely return.

  5. I will right away seize your rss as I can’t to find your e-mail subscription hyperlink or newsletter service.

    Do you have any? Kindly permit me know so that I could subscribe.
    Thanks.

  6. I was wondering if you ever considered changing the structure of your blog?
    Its very well written; I love what youve got to say.
    But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with
    it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or two images.
    Maybe you could space it out better?

  7. Like Abrahasm Lincoln, William McKinley dropped out of college andd later
    became the most highly effective man in the glbe as
    president of the United States.

  8. Link exchange is nothing else but it is simply placing the other person’s
    webpage link on your page at appropriate place and other person will also do similar in favor of you.

  9. excellent issues altogether, you simply received a
    logo new reader. What may you suggest about your
    publish that you made some days in the past?

    Any positive?

  10. Hello, I think your website could be having browser compatibility problems.
    Whenever I look at your site in Safari, it looks fine but when opening in I.E.,
    it has some overlapping issues. I just wanted to provide you with a quick heads up!

    Other than that, fantastic website!

  11. hi!,I like your writing so much! percentage we communicate extra approximately your
    post on AOL? I require an expert in this space to resolve my
    problem. May be that is you! Looking ahead to peer you.

  12. Greetings from Los angeles! I’m bored to death at
    work so I decided to check out your website on my iphone during
    lunch break. I really like the info you present here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home.

    I’m amazed at how fast your blog loaded on my mobile
    .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyways, superb
    site!

  13. I don’t even understand how I stopped up here, however I assumed this post
    was great. I don’t recognise who you’re however
    certainly you’re going to a well-known blogger in the event you are not already.
    Cheers!

  14. It’s actually a nice and helpful piece of information. I’m glad that you
    just shared this useful info with us. Please stay us up to date like this.
    Thank you for sharing.

  15. Hmm is anyone else experiencing problems with the images on this blog loading?
    I’m trying to figure out if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog.
    Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

  16. Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all people you really understand what you’re talking approximately!
    Bookmarked. Kindly additionally seek advice from my site
    =). We will have a hyperlink trade agreement among us

  17. Thanks for the good writeup. It in fact was once a entertainment account it.
    Glance complex to far brought agreeable from you!
    By the way, how could we be in contact?

  18. Excellent goods from you, man. I have remember your stuff previous to and you
    are just too magnificent. I actually like what you have obtained here, really like what you are saying and the way wherein you
    assert it. You’re making it enjoyable and you continue to take care of to stay it smart.

    I can not wait to read far more from you. That is actually a great site.

  19. Wow that was odd. I just wrote an very long comment but after I clicked
    submit my comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyhow, just wanted
    to say great blog!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button