BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 X-WR-CALNAME:www.indybay.org PRODID:-//indybay/ical// v1.0//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:Indybay-18825773 SEQUENCE:18974392 CREATED:20190827T215600Z DESCRIPTION:NPS Releases Seashore Ranching Amendment for Public Comment\n(Suggested points for your comments are below)\n\nThe Draft Environmental Impact Statement and General Management Plan Amendment for ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore is a rare opportunity for the public to have a voice in the future management our national park. How you would like this national park to be managed and why? Send your comments to the National Park Service by September 23.\n\nNPS’s “Preferred Alternative B” is a wholesale giveaway of our public land. It prioritizes ranching over recreation, wildlife and protecting natural resources. In sum, it commits our national seashore to commercial cattle grazing for decades to come.\n\nEconomics and climate change threaten the Seashore ranches’ viability. There’s a surplus of milk, prices are falling, and both beef and dairy consumption is declining. To shore up the ranchers, the NPS wants to grant 20-year leases and allow them to “diversify” by growing and processing crops and adding more livestock–pigs, chickens, goats, and sheep–to their operations. Their plan calls for shooting any Tule elk that “trespass” on the ranch lands.\n\nAlternative B would:\n\nCreate a new zoning framework—the “Ranchland Zone”—encompassing one-third—more than 26,000 acres–of Point Reyes Seashore and 7,000 acres in the Golden Gate Recreation Area. This would permanently commit these park lands to private ranching.\nManage the elk herd using lethal removal methods. The NPS proposes to kill all elk that enter “public“ ranch lands. No new elk herds would be allowed to establish in the planning area. This sacrifices native wildlife living in a national park to private, for-profit ranching.\nAllow grazing for “approximately” 5,500 cattle—2,400 beef cattle and 3,130 dairy animals. Cattle graze at the Seashore 24-7 every day of the year. The land is never allowed to rest and recover. Cattle manure is inadequately managed, runs off into waterways and spreads disease. Public access to recreation is curtailed-when one-third of the park is devoted to ranching.\n\nIssue grazing leases of up to a 20 years to Seashore ranchers for beef and dairy operations, despite well-documented damage to grasslands, birds, native plants and wildlife; pollution affecting freshwater and and marine habitats; and methane and other greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to the climate crisis. The 2019 United Nations report on climate change points to dangerously high temperatures, drought, and extreme weather events and calls for reforming agricultural practices, specifically reducing cattle.\n\nRanching is unsustainable. We need a new vision for the Seashore.\n\nThe preferred alternative:\n\nNo ranching.\nPhase out cattle. Disallow domestic livestock in the park.\nPrioritize biodiversity. Do not kill wildlife to accommodate commercial interests.\nRestore the Seashore’s Pastoral Zone for wildlife habitat, native plant communities, scientific research and education.\nRepurpose historic ranch buildings for scientific research, interpretation and public education.\nRead the NPS’s Draft General Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for Ranching at Point Reyes\n\nTo comment on the draft plan, go to: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?parkID=333&projectID=74313&documentID=97154\nComment period ends September 23, 2019.\n https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/08/27/18825773.php SUMMARY:Point Reyes National Seashore comment period (Now thru Sept 23, 2019) LOCATION:Email your comments to: \nhttps://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?parkID=333&projectID=74313&documentID=97154\nOr,\nMail your comments to:\nGMP Amendment c/o Superintendent\nPt. Reyes National Seashore\n1 Bear Valley Rd\nPt. Reyes Station, CA 94956 URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/08/27/18825773.php DTSTART:20190828T190000Z DTEND:20190828T190000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR