POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE GENERAL MANAGEMENT PLAN UPDATE

The Point Reyes National Seashore is in the process of updating the 1980 General Management Plan (see link at left) for the park lands managed by the Seashore. This includes the northern district of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which starts at the southern end of the Olema Valley. National Parks Proposed Point Reyes Planning guidelines Update of the Park Management Plan (see link at right) to read the Concepts Newsletter 2003. Note: Comments on the Concepts were due February 20, 2004.


NPS UPDATING MANAGEMENT PLAN

The future of the GGNRA (Golden Gate National Recreation Area ) and Muir Woods National Monument is being reviewed as the National Park Service (NPS) begins to update its General Management Plan. GGNRA planning documents The NPS has recently adopted a new Web-based program to help the public track and comment on projects at parks nationwide. PEPC, Planning, Environment and Public Comment  is an online collaborative tool that gives the public unprecedented, easy access to documents used in developing and tracking projects within the National Park Service (NPS). Documents By summer 2005, all GGNRA planning projects will be posted on the PEPC system at: http://www.parkplanning.nps.gov.  

Members of Marinwatch participated a very constructive planning meeting held at the Seashore Park Headquarters on January 14, 2004. Inspired by the discussion at that planning session, we prepared and submitted as Marinwatch's comments on the Newsletter a Proposed Concept 6: Enhancing Cultural and Natural Resource Restoration and Preservation Through Sustainable Agriculture. (Click links at right) to see

-Proposed Concept 6 and the 2 appendices 
-Appendix 1 Cuyahoga Valley National Park Rural Landscape Management Program  and 
-Appendix 2 Prescribed Grazing: A Preliminary Adaptive Management Approach For Point Reyes Rangelands. See also
-The Countryside Initiative: Recovering the Cuyahoga Valley's Rural Heritage.  

We believe that Proposed Concept 6 (see link at left ) , which is a hybrid of the Seashore's Concepts 2 and 5, reflects what many participants in the planning session expressed as their preference. We also believe that there is extensive local support for such an integrated approach to management of these parklands, and that implementation of Proposed Concept 6 in some form could lead to a much-needed experiment in applied ecosystem management in the context of an historic landscape. Both individuals and groups interested in forming a coalition to support this approach to management of these parklands are invited to contact Marinwatch:  contactus@marinwatch.org
Cultural Histoy:
Barn at Rancho Las Bolinas.  

HOT ISSUES
 
Final NPS Environmental Impact Statement on 

Non-Native Deer at Point Reyes  

"Despite the impassioned pleas of local animal rights
groups,  more than a 1,000 non-native deer would be 
shot and killed at Point Reyes National Seashore if a 
new plan endorsed Monday by the National Park 
Service goes forward."  See Marin IJ link left. 

West Marin Citizen Editor Jim Kravits, formerly Managing 
Editor of the Point Reyes Light, and Marinwatch 
Correspondent Dave Mitchell, formerly Editor and Publisher 
of the Light, were honored  by the National Newspaper 
Association for a series of articles in 2005 on the 
Park Service's proposals for dealing with non-native deer.   
These articles provide a recent history leading to the 
Park's decision to exterminate the white and fallow deer 
at the Seashore: "Along with Jim Kravets, Marinwatch 
correspondent Dave Mitchellwas honored earlier this month 
with a National Newspaper Association award for a series 
of articles in 2005 on the Park Service's proposals for dealing 
with non-native deer. 
Old articles can be found at:







White Deer Sitings

For some lovely views of the deer, see Janine Warner's photos taken while walking through the Vedanta Retreat recently. Several photos shows how much grass remained available at that time despite the Park's stated concern that non-native deer compete for forage with native black-tail deer and re-introduced elk.
NPS SAYS OIL AND VOLUNTEERS DON'T MIX!

According to reports in the November 15 issues of both the West  Marin Citizen and the Point Reyes Light, Muir Beach resident  Sigmund Moser, and an impromptu group of volunteers he recruited, gathered on Frodau. November 9 to clean up the oil heading to Muir Beach from the Cosco Busan spill in San Francisco Bay.  They were asked by Golden Gate National Recreation Park rangers to cease their work because they were "not trained and under contract" to handle the oil.  When they refused, Moser was arrest by Park  Service police.

There was precedent for this recent volunter effort.  In January 1971, volunteers worked to protect the Bolinas Lagoon and the beach at Bolinas when two tankers collided outside the Golden Gate Bridge.  In contrast to the recent arrest of Moser,  the work done to fight that spill was honored by naming the southernmost canyon  of Audubon Canyon Ranch "Volunteer Canyon".  See links above for Marin IJ, and Pt. Reyes Light
Technology May Aid in Resolving Debate Over Sources of Pollution in Tomales Bay

In the November 29, 2007 issue, the West Marin Citizen reported that Marin County received a $850,000 grant from the State Water Resources Control Board to develop a beach-monitoring program using a genetic microchip. The Citizen article reported that  "the new chips have some 500,000 genetic probes in an area the size of a quarter, which can quickly distinguish among 9,000 different bacteria types and offer results within 24 hours." Such information may help resolve the longstanding debate about what levels of bacterial pollution in Tomales Bay come from grazing cows, nearby septic systems, boat users and wildlife.