Tag: elk

Point Reyes National Seashore

Point Reyes National Seashore; Former Cattle Area Where Elk Now Prevent Brush Intrusion

Panoramic photo showing amount of grassy area in elk reserve at Point Reyes National Seashore.
Photo showing amount of grassy area in elk reserve at Point Reyes National Seashore.

Point Reyes National Seashore is in the middle of a controversial planning process to determine whether 28,000 acres of commercial ranching operations conducted on federally-owned national park lands should continue or not.  The National Park Service (NPS) bought the land about 50 years ago and it has never had the nerve to make the ranchers to leave.

If ranching is stopped, the ranchers and their cattle, plus many miles of fencing which restrict human and wildlife movement, would be removed and the public would finally be able to recreate on these lands and the lands would be managed for the benefit of wildlife, such as elk, and other natural resources. Right now, the only difference between what NPS wants and what the ranchers want in the planning process regarding elk is whether to shoot 10% of the 120 elk each year (NPS) or all of them at once (ranchers). Why? Elk eat grass and grass is dedicated 100% to cows in this national park. That’s right. No grass or other forage is allocated by NPS for elk or other wildlife.

One argument the ranchers make for why they should be allowed to stay on (at subsidized rents no less) is that if you remove them and their nearly 6,000 dairy and beef cows, the lands will go from beautiful green grasslands (in winter yes, but dead brown grass in summer) to a thick cover of brush that one couldn’t even walk through. Are they right? No.

Here is a panoramic photo of a large portion of the fenced Tomales Point Elk Reserve where 10 elk were reintroduced and hundreds of cows were removed 40 years ago. (Press Command/+ (PC Control/+) one or more times to increase size of photo.)  If the ranchers were correct, this area would be devoid of grass and completely covered in brush. But it’s not.  What you see is mostly grass with brush more prevalent on sloping land like you see in the two draws to the left of the parking lot.

Even though there were only 10 elk to begin with, compared to the hundreds of cattle that had been there before them, the elk herd as it has grown has kept the area basically as it was 40 years ago in terms of a mix of grass and shrubs, like coyote brush and bush lupine. Elk eat grass too (as the ranchers often complain) and they eat more brush than cows because they are not only grazers, like cows, but browsers, like deer, as well.

Still need convincing? Here’s what the range scientists at UC, Berkeley, (by nature, a group favoring cattle grazing), said, begrudgingly, in their 2018 Point Reyes Range Study for Seashore managers to inform them as to whether Point Reyes should be managed for commercial ranching or the preservation and restoration of wildlife, especially elk, and other natural resources:  “Grazing has been shown to negatively impact shrub establishment. Cattle browse minimally on mature coyote brush plants with browse increasing in heavily grazed areas, but they regularly defoliate and uproot coyote brush seedlings, preventing the spread of these shrubs into neighboring grasslands (Elliot & Wehausen 1974; McBride 1974). Johnson and Cushman (2007) found tule elk reduced total shrub cover in a paired grazed and ungrazed enclosure study at PORE.”  “Grazing Plan: Recommendations for [PRNS] managed grazing lands.” Range Ecology Lab, UC, Berkeley, August 15, 2018, at 13.  (Emphasis added.)

A national park should be managed to preserve and protect nature and, if man has damaged it, then NPS should make every effort to restore it to its natural condition. That is in accord with the 1916 NPS Organic Act and NPS management policy.

Before European man and his cows arrived these lands were part of a native coastal prairie stretching from Oregon to southern California. That has all changed with the arrival of cattle.

AS NPS says:  “Less than one percent of California’s native grassland is still intact today. The northern coastal prairie, which extends into Oregon, is the most diverse type of grassland in North America. Pristine patches of this vegetation still grow at Point Reyes on either side of the San Andreas Fault. Deschampsia coastal prairie is found on the Point Reyes peninsula and Danthonia coastal prairie is found on Bolinas Ridge. Coastal prairie is dominated by long lived perennial bunchgrasses, such as Purple needlegrass (Stipa pulchra), California fescue (Festuca californica) and California oatgrass (Danthonia californica), all of which can stay green year round with the moisture provided in the fog belt [and thanks to their very deep root systems].

By 1850, dairy ranchers had arrived at Point Reyes, lured by the near-ideal conditions for raising cattle. Since then, ranchers planted many non-native grasses, many of which were invasive and began to out-compete the native grasses.”   https://www.nps.gov/pore/learn/nature/prairies.htm

Finally, the non-native, annual grass at Point Reyes, which looks like a golf course in winter and a desert in summer, has little wildlife value. While it is eaten by a few mammals, such as elk, it is not a food of many wildlife species and provides no cover or nesting value for wildlife like coyote brush and other shrubs do.

Elk, Point Reyes National Seashore, Tule Elk

Point Reyes National Seashore; Should Private Ranching Be Allowed on National Park Lands?

A Point Reyes National Seashore (PRNS) Bull Tule elk with Barbed Wire Caught in His Antlers

Skeleton of a PRNS Bull Elk Who Died Because Barbed Wire Caught in Antlers Prevented Him from Opening His Mouth.

I was on a Marin TV show entitled “The People’s Environmental News.”  It’s hosted by Barbara McVeigh and and Charlie Siler.  The show was about Point Reyes National Seashore and the planning and NEPA process currently underway for whether 28,000 acres of national park land should be managed for national park purposes or for private ranching purposes.  Environmentalists want the land to be managed in accordance with the laws requiring the park to protect, preserve and restore the natural resources, including wildlife such as the tule elk.   The ranchers want the park to be managed to maximize profit regardless of its effect on wildlife.  That requires removing the elk because they eat grass and the ranchers want their cows to get every blade of grass.  Thus, the ranchers want the elk removed/shot.  They can’t be moved outside the park because they have Johne’s disease which they got from the cattle.  For the past 40 years or so the National Park Service has gone along with whatever the ranchers wanted.  No, I’m not kidding.  The show can be seen here.

I was also on a show last April with Laura Cunningham of the Western Watersheds Project and Skyler Thomas of White Shark Videos.  That show was also about ranching and protecting the elk at Point Reyes Seashore.  That show can be seen here.

 

Point Reyes National Seashore, Tule Elk

Cows in Creek; Point Reyes National Seashore

I was at Point Reyes National Seashore last Thursday. K Ranch beef cows were in Kehoe Creek again. There is a fence just a bit beyond the top border of the video that fails occasionally. This scene is the result. The fence should be relocated to the top of the large slope above the creek to keep manure out of the creek in wet periods, but that would remove many acres from the ranch’s grazing area. I emailed the Park Service about the cows and they replied that the rancher had been notified.

There is a planning process underway to determine if ranching should continue on these national park lands or whether the lands should be managed to protect and restore them to a natural condition as required in national parks. Perhaps the most controversial issue is whether the 125 elk that roam through the park’s ranching area should be shot because they eat grass and the ranchers feel that as permittees on park lands their cows are entitled to all the grass. The Park Service has never allocated any forage to elk or other wildlife in the permits.

If you look and listen carefully, you’ll see the top cow defecate and fart at the end of the video. Kehoe Creek, which begins and ends within the Seashore, is rated as one of the most polluted streams in California.

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.

Rocky Mountain Elk

Elk Calf, Yellowstone National Park

Elk Calf Yellowstone National Park

An elk calf looks at the camera.

My favorite time of year to be in Yellowstone is now.  To be more specific, I like to be there from mid May to mid June.  The main reason, of course, is all the baby animals.  But that’s not all.  The colors are fantastic then also.  Yes, the crowds can be frustrating.  I remember going there in the early 1970’s to photograph wildlife and I never saw another serious photographer.  Really.

I didn’t go this year and I really miss it.

Rocky Mountain Elk

Elk Calf, Yellowstone National Park

newborn elk calf

Newborn Elk Calf along the Madison River

I apologize to those who have followed my blog for not having posted anything for many months.  I’m back and one thing I did during the interim was build a new website (and get rid of two former websites).   Hopefully, I’ve done what it takes for everyone to find this site.   Another thing I did in the interim was go through old images, like this photo of an elk calf, which I photographed in 2014.  When I look at old photos I don’t remember much about some, but others I remember very well.  That’s true with the images of this elk calf.

It was mid-June in Yellowstone and I was driving along the Madison River looking for animals to photograph, especially baby animals.  I don’t regularly drive along the Madison because I don’t have much luck there.  That’s partly because the elk herd in the Firehole/Madison area numbers less than 100 animals.  It’s the only elk herd that stays in the park in the winter and that takes its toll.  The animals are also affected by high fluoride and silica levels in the plants and water which wear their teeth out prematurely.  They live about five years less than elk in the rest of the park, according the the Park Service.

Anyway, it was getting late when I spotted a cow elk with this very small calf.  Another photographer was already there and he told me he saw the mother give birth that morning.  He added that a pair of coyotes had made an attempt to get the calf, but the mother had held them off.  I stayed until I couldn’t see and took this photo well after sunset.  By that time I had developed some connection to the calf and its mother and I decided that even though it was far from where I was staying I would get there by first light the next morning to see if the little one made it through the night.  I got there by first light, but there was no sign of the calf or its mother.  I hope it made it.

Black-tailed Deer

Blacktail Doe and Fawns, Point Reyes National Seashore

Look for fawns throughout the Seashore.
It’s Fawn Time!

Now is a great time to be at Point Reyes.  There are lots of elk calves to see and some deer fawns as well.  I mentioned in an earlier post that I think the heavy winter rains helped increase elk births. I think the same can be said for deer and most other critters.

One thing that I am always amazed at is how fast people drive in the Seashore as they rush to get to some particular location to start enjoying nature.  If they would slow down and scan the fields they would see all kinds of nature’s creations, such as coyotes, bobcats, badgers, elk, deer etc.  Plus, less wildlife would be killed by vehicles.   As Glenn Frey used to sing, “take it easy.”