At Point Reyes, the contest is elk vs. agriculture. The people vote for the elk

A huge majority of people want elk to roam free at Point Reyes National Seashore without butting heads with ranchers or being shot by hired guns, according to a report released to The Chronicle on Wednesday. The analysis by the environmental group Resource Renewal Institute found that 91.4% of those who submitted comments favored elk over cows and other livestock when it came to a National Park Service plan to expand ranching and farming and manage wild elk herds. “Many people assume that ranching is supported in the park, and a lot of politicians and other people will say that there is strong support for ranching,” said Deborah Moskowitz, president of the institute, which was started by Huey Johnson, one of the founders of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. “These numbers clearly refute those claims.” In August, the National Park Service submitted for public review a draft environmental impact statement along with a proposal to extend grazing leases and manage 10,000 acres of land in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and 18,000 acres on the Point Reyes seashore that are used for agriculture. The agricultural land that is under lease covers a little less than a quarter of the roughly 116,000 acres the two parks control in Marin County. The document, which is part of a General Management Plan, has been the subject of bitter fighting among environmentalists, agricultural officials and the park service over what should be done with the tule elk that charm tourists but gobble up grazing grass intended for cattle. A lack of support for agriculture could influence what is done on the 71,028-acre seashore, but the Resource Renewal Institute is far from impartial. It has fought for free-roaming elk and even sued the park service, claiming cattle were damaging the environment. Seashore Outreach Coordinator Melanie Gunn said the park will address substantive comments in its final environmental impact statement, which the park expects to release this spring. She said the comments will be evaluated for relevance in establishing park policy but are not equivalent to voting. “The number of comments received on an alternative is not a determination of its merit for consideration,” Gunn said...MORE