US official wades into coastal Marin agriculture conflict

A high-ranking federal official who visited Point Reyes Station this week found an active fault line on the issue of agriculture.

Karen Budd-Falen, associate deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, appeared for a public forum Thursday at West Marin Elementary School. The event drew more than 500 people from both sides of the lingering conflict over animal husbandry at Point Reyes National Seashore.

A legal settlement that prompted the closure of six dairies and six beef ranches that had been in the seashore for generations has divided the community into opposing camps. April 8 was the final deadline for all of the dairies and ranches to shut down, but that hasn't ended the controversy.

An announcement for the meeting described it as a "community open house to discuss ongoing management of grasslands within 17,000 acres of the headlands and Pierce Point areas of Point Reyes National Seashore."

Behind the scenes, however, the opposing sides were rallying their partisans to attend the meeting to demonstrate community support for either staying the course or pushing back.

In a statement to its supporters, the Resource Renewal Institute, one of the environmental groups that sued to expel the agricultural operations, wrote that a small group of agricultural interests was working to undo the deal.

"They have the ear of the Trump administration's Department of the Interior," the statement said, "where Associate Deputy Secretary Karen Budd-Falen, a longtime ranching industry attorney, has been tapped to ‘broker a Point Reyes solution.'"

A leading opponent of the settlement, Albert Straus, founder and executive chairman of the Straus Family Creamery, said, "We were shut out during the litigation and mediation and the buyouts. So this is our opportunity to say what we want for our future."

The confidential settlements, which were mediated by the Nature Conservancy, resulted in undisclosed payments to the dairy and ranch owners who left.

Straus has submitted a proposal to the Interior Department to operate four organic, regenerative dairy demonstration farms at Point Reyes National Seashore. The farms would occupy about 6,000 acres, with each dairy having about 400 milking cows and 500 heifers.

Straus also proposes to provide affordable, onsite housing for at least 32 workers and their families. An estimated 90 people, mostly Latino workers, were displaced when the dairies and ranches closed.

Anyone expecting a showdown at the meeting Thursday would have been disappointed. No one led the meeting, and it had no public speakers and no debate.

Attendees had an opportunity to fill out a form stating their opinions as they entered the school gymnasium. Various groups - including In Defense of Animals, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, the Nature Conservancy and Community First, a local pro-dairy group - had set up tables ringing the gym.

Budd-Falen, who holds the Interior Department's third highest-ranking position, stood in one corner of the gym wearing a small name tag. Anyone who knew who she was had the opportunity to speak with her.

"The meeting spoke more to the confusion around this situation than any clear sense of what's going on or where this might be leading," said U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, who dispatched an aide to the meeting but didn't attend.

"There was not even a clearly stated purpose for the meeting," Huffman said. "It was just a bunch of tables with people with different perspectives. I don't know what to say about that."

Budd-Falen said she had reviewed Straus' proposals but declined to say whether she was inclined to implement them.

"I'm not going to tell you what we're doing because I don't know what we're doing," Budd-Falen said. "Right now we're considering every proposal out there. We're going to take everything into account and then make a decision that's in compliance with the law and the requirements of the settlement agreement."

Also in attendance was Chadwick Conover, a Half Moon Bay native who takes credit for getting Robert Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health secretary, interested in the plight of Marin dairy operators.

Conover struck up a friendship with Kennedy after moving to Malibu and became interested in the dairy issue himself after speaking with the owner of a Marin health food store.

Conover said Kennedy pressed the issue with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins after discussing the situation with him.

"I've always been connected to wild nature, which I care a lot about," Conover said. "But I also care about civilization. My vision is to have organic, regenerative, limited farming, like a couple of dairies and some grazing, blended with beautiful, wild, rugged Point Reyes. I think that it could be a shining example for the world."

Conover isn't the only link between Kennedy and what is happening in western Marin.

"Nicolette Hahn Niman is very close allies with RFK Jr.," Huffman said. "They've been pals for a long time."

Hahn Niman - an author, environmental attorney and western Marin livestock rancher - is competing with Huffman in the June election for the 2nd Congressional District seat. When Hahn Niman was an attorney for the Waterkeeper Alliance in the early 2000s, she reported directly to Kennedy, who was president.

Hahn Niman and her husband Bill Niman sued the National Park Service last year over its decision to prohibit agriculture at Point Reyes National Seashore.

"The point of our lawsuit is to try to prevent the loss of all this land as part of the food system," said Hahn Niman, who had her own table at the event Thursday. "There were ranchers and families who had been part of the community fabric for generations, so this was an absolutely monumental decision."

Chance Cutrano, director of programs for the Resource Renewal Institute and a former Fairfax Town Council member, said Straus' proposal would violate the settlement and "likely plunge the community back into more conflict."

Cutrano said that under the settlement, seven beef ranches were granted 20-year leases to continue operations in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

"This proposal from Albert Straus is going to throw their operations into limbo," he said.

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