NPS to Remove Contentious Fence: Rare Tule Elk to Roam Free for First Time at Point Reyes National Seashore
Image credit: Chance Cutrano
In a long-awaited victory for park advocates, the National Park Service (NPS) will remove the two-mile-long, eight-foot-tall fence that confines a herd of rare native elk to Tomales Point, 2,900 acres at the northern tip of Point Reyes National Seashore. Tule elk are a species endemic to California and exist in no other national park.
During three comment periods over two years, the Park Service received 35,000 public comment letters to the proposed management plan for Tomales Point. The final management plan for the area calls for removing the elk enclosure fence, allowing the native elk to roam free for the first time in the park’s history.
This victory belongs to the thousands of concerned individuals, tribal partners, and environmental organizations who spoke up for these magnificent animals,” said Chance Cutrano, Director of Programs at the Resource Renewal Institute (RRI). “Removing this fence marks a new chapter at Point Reyes-–one where native tule elk can move freely across their ancestral landscapes.”
The fence removal addresses a devastating pattern of elk deaths within the enclosure during periods of drought. Between 2012 and 2015, the confined herd declined by approximately 50%, from 540 to 283 elk. In 2020-2021, 293 elk died behind the fence. During these same periods, free-ranging elk herds elsewhere in the park maintained stable populations.
The confined Tomales Point herd has the lowest genetic diversity of any tule elk population in California. Removing the fence will allow natural movement between herds, improving their genetic resilience and long-term survival prospects.
Tule elk, once prevalent in California, were thought to have been extirpated by the late 19th century. A small herd was discovered near Bakersfield, and ten elk were reintroduced to the national seashore in 1978 to rescue the species. The 8-foot-tall fence was mandated to prevent elk from competing with dairy cattle on adjacent ranchlands, which occupy about one-third of the Seashore's 71,000 acres.
In response to federal lawsuits and public outcry over the deaths of hundreds of confined elk during drought years, the NPS installed water systems at Tomales Point in 2021. Under the new management plan, once the elk fence comes down, those water systems will also be removed.
Image credit: Chance Cutrano
“The decision to remove the fence, supported by the NPS’s Environmental Impact Statement, recognizes the vital ecological role native tule elk play in the health of the Seashore, designated an International Biosphere Preserve for the diversity of species found there. The decision honors not just the land but also the tule elk that have always belonged here”, said Deborah Moskowitz, President of Resource Renewal Institute. “For nearly a decade, RRI, joined by thousands of community members and park visitors, advocated for this change, and today, the park finally affirms that restoring freedom and openness—unfenced and unbound—is the right step forward.”
The management plan, developed in consultation with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, includes new interpretive signage and educational programming incorporating traditional ecological knowledge. It also calls for improving recreation access, preserving the Phillip Burton Wilderness, and protecting natural and cultural resources.
A separate federal lawsuit brought in 2022 by the Resource Renewal Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, and Western Watershed Project over the park’s General Management Plan is in mediation.
