It’s a Sunday afternoon in Marin County’s Point Reyes National Seashore just outside of San Francisco. Bob McClure, owner and operator of the McClure Family Dairy located in the national park, is out working on his ranch when the chief of law enforcement drives up to his residence with news. Protestors are gathering outside the front gate of the dairy, and he should be prepared for whatever they might do.
McClure waits for the group’s arrival. A crowd of around 200 to 300 people walk through the gates with a loudspeaker and signs that read “Save the Elk.” McClure, not entirely sure what to do, lets the protestors onto the property and listens as they voice their grievances. The group consists of local animal rights activists concerned for the nearby tule elk population they believe is being harmed by the presence of McClure’s dairy cattle herd.
“You know, I've been in the dairy business for almost 40 years,” said McClure, “and that was probably the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in my life.”
McClure’s dairy is one of 24 ranches still operating in the park. According to McClure, he and other dairy farmers have faced significant challenges, like having to abide by National Parks Service land regulations and almost losing their land to housing developers. These protestors, however, were something McClure hadn’t faced before.
James McClure, Bob McClure’s great-grandfather, started the ranch back in 1889, making the McClure Family Dairy operation more than 130 years old. McClure jokingly labeled himself the fourth generation of dairy farmers “who weren't smart enough to do something else.”
In fact, the dairy is older than the park itself, as the Point Reyes National Seashore wasn’t established until the 1970s. In 1971, McClure said the land where the dairies sit was at risk of being developed for the densely populated county, but the National Park Service bought the land instead to preserve it and its history.
“I truly do believe this – if the park had not bought those ranches, there would be houses there today. I guarantee you that. So, in a way they preserved agriculture,” said McClure.
Photo by Alyssa McClure
Today a new threat to the dairy’s existence has emerged on its doorstep, but this time it’s not a push to develop the land. Local environmental groups want the land to be turned over for the resident elk population.
The conflict between tule elk and cattle has been a recurring issue since the near-extinct tule elk were reintroduced in the 1970s. According to park service records, the elk reserve was established on Tomales Point, the northern-most point of the park’s peninsula. There elk were allowed to grow in population, and throughout the years, their numbers have expanded into dairy ranching territory.
McClure said that ranchers just want the elk to stay within their reserve and away from the cattle’s rangeland, as they have a tendency to disrupt dairy herds and damage fence lines. However, environmental groups are pushing for the reduction or removal of the dairies in the national park by emphasizing that the cattle compete too much with the elk for water and land.
In 2016, environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Resource Renewal Institute, and the Western Watersheds Project, filed a lawsuit against the National Park Service in an effort to have the park’s rangeland management plan amended to protect the tule elk and shorten dairy farmers’ ranch leases so one day, the land might be given to the elk. McClure had his doubts that the park service would protect the dairies the same way they did back in the ‘70s.
In the park service’s review of its plan, however, they surprised McClure. The National Parks Service gave ranchers the option to actually extend their property leases to 20 years rather than five years, which McClure noted was a highly favorable outcome for the ranchers.
Again, the National Parks Service took steps to preserve the land for agricultural use. Although this may have been an encouragement to the ranchers, other groups were not as happy. In response to the outcome of the lawsuit, the Center for Biological Diversity issued a press release calling the National Parks Service’s decision an act to “enshrine commercial cattle ranching … at the expense of native wildlife.”
Despite pushback from environmentalists, McClure said it felt good that the National Parks Service stood behind the ranchers when faced with the lawsuit, and the partnership between the National Parks Service and the dairy farmers has continued to grow. Following the conclusion of the lawsuits, the dairies were listed on the National Register of Historical Places, ensuring that they are “worthy of preservation” and will be considered in development of state and federal projects, according to the National Park Service website.
“We are actually a protected class of people as farmers out there now, and that's part of [the National Park's] mandate to preserve cultural resources, which is me – I'm a cultural resource,” said McClure, smiling.
The Future of the Dairies
Despite the support dairy farmers on the Point Reyes National Seashore have received from the National Park Service over the years, it is not easy to be a dairy farmer in a national park. In the 1950s, 250 dairies populated the park. Today only 24 remain.
Left to right: Mom Ruth McClure, daughters Jeanette, Michelle and Alyssa, and Bob McClure. Photo provided by Alyssa McClure
Alyssa McClure explained that the protestor’s confrontation at the McClure dairy was difficult for her dad and for her.
“I really don’t think I would have been able to handle it as calmly as my dad has,” Alyssa McClure said. Even though she might not want to take over operations at the McClure Family Dairy, she said that it’s still her “favorite place in the world,” and she will always cherish the land she grew up on and the farm lifestyle.
“I might not be directly involved in agriculture [in the future], but the good news is that anyone can be an advocate for agriculture,” Alyssa McClure said. “You can still be a part of it without being directly involved in it career-wise. So, I'm not too worried about distancing myself from that. I'll always be involved in it.”
