On April 7, 2022, the Point Reyes National Seashore (Seashore) sought approval from the California Coastal Commission (Commission) for proposed strategies to improve and protect water quality and reduce climate emissions during the implementation of the General Management Plan Amendment that authorizes continued dairy and beef ranching.
The Commission rejected the proposed strategies as incomplete and requested that the Seashore staff work with the Commission staff to update the strategies and return in the Summer for review and potential approval. The Commission remains engaged with the Seashore and did not make any decisions to reopen the April 2021 Federal Consistency Determination.
EAC and the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) requested that the Commission not approve the submitted strategies based on the fundamental flaw that allows ranchers to dictate coastal resource protection measures based on the terms and conditions in their leases that is based on rancher willingness to seek long-term leases to make investments to protect resources.
We continue to advocate the desired targets and conditions for water quality and climate emission reduction should be set first. Following the identification of those targets then develop a timeline and list of implementation improvements and investments to meet those targets.
Commissioners noted that the priority areas have not been identified in the strategies and that the last 20-years of data collection is not being utilized to develop any plan of action. The Commission is concerned about fecal indicators, nutrients (ammonia, dissolved oxygen, nitrates, sedimentation, chlorophyll A and eutrophication/algal cover), and bringing all the data together to create a framework, set goals, target areas for improvement, what to do with best management practices when thresholds are exceeded, and building in strong compliance measures in the leases.
This is a common sense approach by the Commission and we look forward to the public release of the updated strategies this summer.
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