On World Environment Day: A Vision for a Restored Point Reyes National Seashore?
A relict coastal prairie at Point Reyes National Seashore. Courtesy of the National Park Service
“It’s the little things citizens do. That’s what will make the difference.”
Today, June 5, is World Environment Day and official launch of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration— a rallying cry to reverse the degradation of our planet and help Nature heal.
At the Resource Renewal Institute (RRI), we’re reminded of our beloved colleague, Professor Wangari Maathai, (1940-2011), founder of the Greenbelt Movement of Kenya. As a scientist, a government critic, and an environmental activist, Wangari endured gender bias and persecution by those in power. And yet, she persisted—planting more than 51 million trees in Kenya, restoring forests and improving the lives of rural women across Africa. RRI was her partner in that effort, launching the Greenbelt Movement International to take her inspiring tree-planting movement global. In 2004, Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her "contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace."
Kenyan political activist Wangari Maathai
"We all need to work hard to make a difference in our neighborhoods, regions, and countries, and in the world as a whole,” Wangari wrote. "That means making sure we work hard, collaborate with each other, and make ourselves better agents to change.”
What might we, as change agents, achieve for Point Reyes National Seashore—a formerly biodiverse, fertile coastal grassland with healthy soils, hundreds of native species, pure water, spawning salmon and wild, roaming herds of elk, deer, and pronghorn?
Once stretching from Oregon to Southern California, today less than one percent of California's northern coastal prairie ecosystem still exists. Point Reyes National Seashore is such a remnant of these dwindling native grasslands. This park—the only national seashore on the West coast—may provide one of the last places for coastal prairie habitat restoration.
It’s unclear exactly when or why the National Park Service (NPS) began prioritizing private livestock grazing over the ecological health of the park. What is clear is that pollution, drought, wildfire, elk die-offs, and climate change imperil Point Reyes National Seashore and that a new vision for our national park is not only necessary but that this moment demands it.
Be it due to retirement, drought, or changing economic conditions, as the ranches inevitably "blink out”—as Representative Jared Huffman recently characterized the future of the Seashore’s two dozen leased ranches—what will take their place?
What can governments, society, and we, as individuals, do to restore the earth’s systems upon which everyone’s future depends? What vision do we wish to put forward for the future of our national seashore? Please send us yours. info@restoreptreyesseashore.org
Watch Wangari in “I Will be a Hummingbird”. (2 minutes):
