September 26, 2023

National Park Service 
Superintendent Craig Kenkel
Point Reyes National Seashore
1 Bear Valley Road 
Point Reyes Station, CA 94956 

Dear Superintendent Kenkel,

We’re writing on behalf of Save Marin’s Food Community coalition dedicated to preserving all of Marin’s food and farming community, supporting local businesses integrated into the agricultural sector, and maintaining West Marin’s community. We have a shared vision of a farming model that is in harmony with nature.

Our community is at a significant moment in Marin County’s history. The impending loss of the Seashore’s farms and ranches would cause unprecedented damage to Marin County’s agricultural economy and regional food supply. Our coalition is urging the National Park Service  (NPS) publicly to provide fair, reasonable, and sustainable leases that are longer, renewable, and completed in a timely manner to help secure the economic viability of these historic farms and ranches.

For more than 13 years, the NPS has delayed renewing the long-term leases, forcing the farms and ranches to be in a financially untenable position. NPS’ inaction for more than a decade has made it impossible for these farms and ranches to operate a viable farming business. As a result, the farms and ranches are unable to invest in a stable, sustainable farming future that serves as a model for environmental stewardship through a positive public-private partnership while also sustaining Marin’s rural food community. Our recommendation for fair and reasonable leases to safeguard the future of these farms and ranches includes the following:

• Allow leases with infrastructure improvement plans for the farms and ranches in the Park. 
• Allow the farms and ranches to operate an economically viable business that can be in balance with natural resources.
• Allow dairy farms to balance pasture production with the animals through appropriate stocking rates based on best organic management practices and verified data management.
• Allow third-party support from local environmental and community groups to help farms implement best management practices that maximize positive environmental outcomes and stable economic viability.
• Allow up to 20-year fair, sustainable, renewable leases to enable the farms and ranches to invest in long-term infrastructure improvements to help develop a sustainable business model.
• Allow the opportunity to educate the public and provide tours of the dairy farms to inspire Seashore visitors about organic dairy farming and a carbon-neutral farming model and the unique strength of public-private partnerships. 
• Allow NPS (Point Reyes National Seashore (PRNS)) to be a participatory landlord in the farming operations by enabling opportunities for environmental objectives and bearing financial responsibility for aging historic park infrastructure on farm properties. 
• Allow farms to operate without negative ecological and economic interaction with free-ranging elk herds. 

A conservation movement led to PRNS being authorized under the NPS in 1962. At that time, a pastoral zone was created within the Seashore encompassing the historic ranches and farms that were designated “a cultural landscape.” Today, these farms and ranches represent a critical link in the region, state’s farm-to-fork growing cycle that supports regional farmers' markets, local cheese processing operations, and fresh restaurant offerings. The Seashore farms and ranches have built a local, healthy, productive farming and food model established on sustainable and organic farming practices that are being replicated around the world as the future of sustainable food.  

The loss of these 18 Seashore family farms and ranches will have devastating, longstanding repercussions on the stabilization of rural West Marin and the entire Marin County community, including schools and other businesses that depend on agriculture. Removal of these generationally family-run operations through inaction and decades of unrenewed leases, which represent 20% of Marin’s agricultural economy, would be another step towards eliminating modest-scale family farming in California. Schools in Marin County continue to decline and are at risk of closing permanently. There has been a 35% reduction in the student-age population and a 41% reduction in high school students since 2010 (US Census) in some West Marin schools. If these farms are forced to cease operations due to unfair lease terms and ongoing litigation further delaying lease establishment then the farming families will likely need to relocate out of the region and remove their children from school. The dramatic loss in school attendance, where schools are already struggling to find students and budget support, will be a significant loss for the entire community.

The Seashore farms and ranches contribute to the stability of the entire Marin County farming and food system. We need them to remain PRNS and Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) to ensure:

•  A local, sustainable organic farming and food system in Marin County that sustains the community, schools, local workforce, agriculture, and businesses.
•  A local, vibrant farming system and food supply that is flexible and agile during crises and has proven it can maintain a local supply of nutritious food (e.g. COVID-19 pandemic).
• Healthy, high-quality organic and sustainable food that supplies our local community and the greater Bay Area, the rest of California, instead of relying on importing food from out of state and the country.
• Avoiding a devastating loss of 30% of Marin County’s organic dairy farms (5 out of the 16 organic dairy farms are located at PRNS.) and reducing the supply of organic milk in this region (34% of Marin County’s gross agriculture commodity value). 

The loss of the historic ranches in PRNS that have been on the land for more than 100 years would take away one of our best long-term solutions to preserve family farms and rural communities while reducing our climate impact. We believe that by working together, we can fulfill the vision of the NPS to preserve natural resources and sustain ranching in the Seashore. These sustainable operations along with the wider Marin agricultural community, have tremendously benefited this region by enhancing the culture, improving rural economies, supporting local businesses, and offering access to nutritious food.

This letter is written in support of the PRNS farms and ranches along with all the supporters of a local farming and food system in this region. We ask that you follow our recommendations as soon as possible in order to preserve farming and ranching in the Seashore and help sustain this community and local food supply. 

Sincerely,

Save Marin’s Food Community Coalition and Supporters 

CC (updated):  
Assemblymember Damon Connolly
California Department of Food & Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree
Congressman Jared Huffman
Governor Gavin Newsom
Marin County Board of Supervisors
Senator Alex Padilla
Senator Dianne Feinstein (submitted prior to her death)
Senator Mike McGuire
USDA Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack
USDA Under Secretary of Agriculture Jenny Moffitt
U.S. Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland

Save Marin’s Food Community coalition is dedicated to preserving the agricultural communities of Marin. Concerned individuals, organizations, and companies are participants such as the Agricultural Institute of Marin (AIM), California Cattlemen’s Association, Clover Sonoma, Coastal Health Alliance, Petaluma Health Center, Straus Family Creamery, Western Organic Dairy Producers Alliance (WODPA), and Western United Dairies, etc. This is a newly created coalition, and participation continues to grow.  Learn more.