by Corey S. Goodman
What makes a national park? Some were fashioned, by the likes of
Teddy Roosevelt, out of what was romanticized as the Wild West. Others
were created in partnership with those who have been the historic
stewards of the land. The Point Reyes National Seashore, just north of
San Francisco, is the latter: a national seashore created out of
historic farm and ranch land, preserved by its farmers and ranchers for
more than a century, to protect and promote the farming and ranching
heritage of the land, and to keep it from turning into urban sprawl,
golf courses, and gated communities.
But the seashore is under dire threat. A few weeks ago, the Center
for Biological Diversity and other environmental groups sued the
National Park Service with the intent to clear the eleven remaining
ranches out of Point Reyes National Seashore (of the nineteen that
existed when PRNS was created), with clear implications for the eight
remaining ranches in adjoining Golden Gate National Recreation Area (of
the fifteen that existed when GGNRA was created).
The ranchers have a right to feel their days are numbered. After
all, the continuation of their ranches was part of the deal when these
parks were created. The basic problem for these ranchers, however, is
that the director of the National Park Service, Jon Jarvis, agrees with
these environmental groups that agriculture does not belong in a
national park.
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