A badger and more news. Here’s a badger I photographed recently at Point Reyes. He got very animated at one point and I switched to video. Maybe I’ll post that video some time.
I got an update on what I’ve been referring to as an upcoming “planning” process for how the Park Service and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) will try to restore the Seashore ranching area to the original coastal prairie condition that existed before the arrival of cattle some 200 years ago destroyed it.
I wrote to Seashore Superintendent Anne Altman asking for details about that. She replied that it wouldn’t be a “planning process” in the sense of any more amending of the General Management Plan, but “[t]he park and TNC are working to provide different ways for interested parties . . . to give input as to how the General Management Plan Amendment is implemented under the TNC Cooperative Agreement.” My use of the term “planning” may have been a poor word choice, but what she described was exactly what I had been wondering about. She added that public meetings will be scheduled for this spring.
Many people are concerned that “targeted grazing” by 600 to 1200 cattle that is discussed at length in the Revised Record of Decision and the cooperative agreement between NPS and TNC seems to be the primary method for restoring the Seashore to pre-cattle conditions. They believe this is way too narrow an approach to restoring the coastal prairie.
My hope is that the public meetings will result in a plan (a way forward) that all who want the Seashore restored to pre-cattle conditions (both flora and fauna) will find satisfactory.
This photo, along with all others now on my new website, is available to purchase as a high quality fine art print to hang on your home or office wall.