Category: Cows

African Lion, Bald Eagle, Cows, Coyote, Eagle, elephant, Elk, Favorite Images, Guanaco, Landscape, Lion, Point Reyes National Seashore, Red Fox, San Francisco, Serengeti National Park, Torres del Paine National Park, Tule Elk

Favorite Blog Photos of 2019

Here are some of my favorite photos that I blogged about in 2019.

This is a photo of a bull tule elk feeding at sunset.A bull tule elk feeds at sunset inside the elk enclosure at Point Reyes National Seashore.

At Point Reyes National Seashore 400-500 elk are kept locked up behind an 8-foot tall woven-wire fence to keep them away from the ranchers who live on and control 28,000 acres of park land and raise 6,000 dairy cows, beef cattle and sheep.  NPS bought their ranches decades ago, but never removed them.  The 28,000 acres are managed as the ranchers want, not as lands in a national park are supposed to be managed.  I know of no other national park where wildlife is locked up like in a zoo for the visitors to see.

This is a night photo of the San Francisco skyline with Angel Island in the foreground and Alcatraz in the midground.A night view of Angel Island, Alcatraz and San Francisco.

Photo of some mountain peaks and fog at dawn in Torres del Paine National ParkMountains and fog at dawn in Torres del Paine National Park

This is a photo of a mother guanaco and her young before sunrise in Torres del Paine National Park.A mother guanaco and her chulengo appear before sunrise in Torres del Paine National Park.

Red Fox Vixen with Snowshoe HareA red fox mom returns to her den with an arctic hare to feed her kits in Yellowstone National Park.

This is a photo of three lionesses who are on the hunt. One is wearing a research collar.Three lionesses are on the hunt in Serengeti National Park.

This is a photo of a mature bald eagle perched on a limb.A bald eagle perches on a limb in Alaska.

This is a photo of a male elephant walking away from a wetland in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania.A male elephant walks near a wetland in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania.

Photo of female lion surveying her domain in Serengeti National Park.An African lioness surveys her domain in Serengeti National Park.

A coyote stops and looks at the camera in Point Reyes Seashore just before the sun sets.A coyote stops just before sunset as it travels across a ranch pasture in Point Reyes National Seashore.

The National Park Service purchased the ranches several decades ago, but it has never made the ranchers leave.

A bald eagle lands too close to another and gets bitten in the neck.One bald eagle bites another at Homer, Alaska.

Photo of a coyote on a ranch pasture in Point Reyes National Seashore.A coyote walks across a ranch pasture full of non-native European grasses in Point Reyes Seashore.

The National Park Service prioritizes private ranching over wildlife in Point Reyes National Seashore.  This is the worst example of privatizing a national park that I am aware of.  It involves 28,000 acres of national park land.  If anyone knows of a worse example, please let me know.

Cows

POINT REYES PLANNING PROCESS ON TV

Photo of two milk cows standing in a pond.

Cows in Pond, Point Reyes

I appeared on Marin TV a week ago with Laura Cunningham of Western Watersheds Project and Skyler Thomas of White Shark Videos. We were on a program called the People’s Environmental News with hosts Charlie Siler and Barbara McVeigh. The hour-long program was about Point Reyes National Seashore and the current planning process. If you’d like to watch it, it’s on YouTube at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qPEZtl1CDM&feature=youtu.be

Here is a picture of a pond in Point Reyes National Seashore which is one of the many things we talked about on the program. The pond is entirely covered in weed growth. Why? Because cows stand in it and urinate and defecate. It also receives manure from lands above it as well as another pond above it whose waters percolate into it. Cow manure is basically fertilizer which causes any vegetation in the water to grow out of control. Of course, there is also the e coli problem, but that’s a story for another day.

This pond is part of the upper reaches of the South Fork of Kehoe Creek which is one of the most polluted creeks in California. Yes, a creek whose entire watercourse is in a national park is one of the most polluted watersheds in California. Way to go National Park Service! It’s responsible animal husbandry to fence a stock pond and to place a stock tank downgrade from the pond and then to run a pipe between them. But that’s not the way the ranchers at Point Reyes operate and the Park Service Superintendent is afraid to tell the ranchers to do anything for fear they will call Senator Feinstein and/or Rep. Huffman and that Superintendent will be out the door, like the last one. But I digress. Back to that pond.

The pond’s water percolates through its earthen dam and joins other Souith Fork waters until the South Fork joins the two North Forks of Kehoe Creek at a pool near the Kehoe Beach parking lot. From there, the manure-laden water flows to Kehoe Beach where the water sits in a pool until a large enough storm occurs that can breach the beach and deliver the manure to the Pacific Ocean.

Cows

The Big Lie — Point Reyes National Seashore and Ranching

Severe Cattle Trails at Point Reyes National Seashore Becoming Gullies

Cattle trails on hillsides in the Seashore cause severe erosion and manure pollution of the adjacent bays and ocean.

CONGRESS NEVER INTENDED THAT RANCHING WOULD GO ON FOREVER

Contrary to the claims of some, there is no basis for asserting that when Congress passed the Point Reyes legislation in 1962 it intended that ranching would go on forever after the ranch lands were acquired by the National Park Service (NPS).  The legislation didn’t address the issue at all.  Furthermore, there is no point in debating the issue now because Congress addressed the issue in 1978 by adding language to the legislation stating that ranching was discretionary, not mandatory.  That language provides as follows:

“Where appropriate in the discretion of the Secretary, he or she may lease federally owned land . . . which has been acquired . . . and which was agricultural land prior to its acquisition.  Such lease shall be subject to such restrictive covenants as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of sections 459c to 459c–7 of this title.”

92 Stat. 3487 (Nov. 10, 1978); 16 U.S.C. § 459c-5.  (Emphasis added.)

Clearly, Congress addressed the issue in 1978 and made ranching permissible in the Secretary’s discretionary, but not required.

Furthermore, the Secretary’s discretion is limited by other language requiring that Point Reyes be managed without impairment of its natural values.

“[T]he property . . . shall be administered . . . without impairment of its natural values, in a manner which provides for such recreational, educational, historic preservation, interpretation, and scientific research opportunities as are consistent with, based upon, and supportive of the maximum protection, restoration, and preservation of the natural environment . . . .”

16 U.S.C. § 459c-6.  (Emphasis added.)

Ranching is impairing the natural resources of Point Reyes as is obvious to anyone who goes out there and looks at the ranching area.  Consequently, NPS is violating its statutory duty under the Seashore statute.  It is also violating the 1916 NPS Organic Act which has similar non-impairment language and applies to all national parks, including Point Reyes.  The only way to stop impairing nature at Point Reyes is to stop ranching and manage Point Reyes like national parks are supposed to be managed with the overarching duty being the protection of natural resources, not the destruction of them.  It’s time for the Park Service to perform its statutory duty by removing the ranchers, not the elk the ranchers want removed because the elk, like their 6,000 cattle, eat grass.  The Seashore is a national park, not a private ranch.