Ranching operations to transition out of Point Reyes by 2026, clearing the way for conservation efforts.

An agreement signed this week by the National Park Service (NPS), environmental groups, and 18 families who have long run cattle and dairy operations at Point Reyes National Seashore ends a decade-long dispute over ranching within the national park.

For the first time in history, tule elk at Point Reyes National Seashore will roam free as the NPS removes the contentious two-mile-long fence. Learn how thousands of voices and RRI made this historic moment possible!

As we approach our40th anniversary, the RRI team is filled with pride and gratitude for the incredible journey we have undertaken together. When Huey founded his fledgling “think and do” tank in 1985, he had already built an astonishing record of environmental accomplishments.  One of these achievements—saving the Marin Headlands—was honored this year by the National Park Service (NPS).

The Resource Renewal Institute, as part of the Power in Nature coalition, has submitted comments on the U.S. Forest Service's National Old Growth Amendment DEIS. They argue that the current proposal fails to adequately protect old-growth forests.

46 Bay Area environmental organizations have united to urge San Francisco officials to drop a lawsuit against the EPA, scheduled for Supreme Court hearing on October 16, 2024. The lawsuit challenges EPA's authority under the Clean Water Act, potentially undermining nationwide water protection efforts.

RRI and a coalition of over 50 conservation organizations sent a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom and key California legislators strongly opposing the proposed reversion of $45 million in General Funds from the Habitat Conservation Fund (HCF) back to the General Fund.

Point Reyes National Seashore is the only national park where tule elk exist.

In 1978, the NPS reintroduced ten of California’s last surviving tule elk to the National Seashore. Once hailed as a historic conservation victory, the recovering tule elk at Tomales Point have struggled. For decades, scientists forewarned that forage and water were insufficient for the confined herd to thrive. As predicted, hundreds of elk have suffered and died during two historic droughts over the last decade.

In April, the California Coastal Commission unanimously rejected the National Park Service’s (NPS) Water Quality Strategy and Climate Action Plan for Point Reyes National Seashore as inadequate and sent the NPS back to the drawing board. This Thursday, September 8, Commissioners will revisit the NPS’s newly submitted plan.

The California Coast Commission unanimously rejected the National Park Service’s “First-Year Water Quality Strategy and Climate Action Plan” for Point Reyes National Seashore. One year ago, the Commission, by one vote, approved a controversial General Management Plan Amendment for the Point Reyes National Seashore on the condition that NPS come up with a “strategy” to fix the water pollution and greenhouse gases spewing from private cattle operations in the national park.

The National Park Service announced that it has initiated a new planning process to address “complex wildlife, resource, and wilderness management issues” at Tomales Point at Point Reyes National Seashore in Northern California. The planning area includes the 2,900-acre Tomales Point Tule Elk Reserve where rare native tule elk, once thought to be extinct, were reintroduced in 1978. Point Reyes is the only national park where tule elk exist.

On January 10th, the RRI and our co-plaintiffs—the Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project—filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Northern District Court in San Francisco challenging the National Park Service’s (NPS) controversial management plan for ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore and the northern district of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which remain among a small handful of national parks where commercial beef and dairy ranching reign.

Life is getting sticky for the beef and dairy ranchers operating within Point Reyes National Seashore. They’ve taken to blaming their problems on the activists that have effectively stalled what the ranchers clearly thought was a slam dunk for their forever-ranching in this national park.