After years of debate, nearly two miles of fencing that prevented elk from accessing water and competing with nearby cattle for food at Point Reyes National Seashore will be removed, the National Park Service said Monday. It was announced on .
The 8-foot-tall, 3.2-mile-long enclosure fence has been denounced as inhumane by animal rights activists but supported by ranchers and will be removed, along with all temporary water systems.
“We analyzed three alternatives and incorporated feedback from more than 35,000 public comment letters collected during three comment periods,” Park Director Ann Altman said in a media statement. said. “The benefit of removing this enclosure is that the elk will have access to new habitat, increasing the species’ population resiliency during drought and promoting more natural population cycles.”
The National Park Service announced it will remove two miles of fencing surrounding elk at Point Reyes National Seashore.
(Irrfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
In 2021, the federal agency issued a report showing more than a third of the 445 elk fenced at Tomales Point at the time died the previous winter, reducing the population to 293. announced.
Environmental and animal activists called on the Park Service to remove the fence, saying it was preventing the moose from accessing fresh water outside the enclosure. Animal rights groups tried to give the moose water in 2020 but were refused.
The fence was first installed in 1978 after elk were reintroduced to Tomales Point. According to NPS’s 2024 annual count, the minimum population estimate for this herd is 315 elk.
Their fenced freedom is expected to improve herd health both rapidly and in the long term. The key is to reduce the number of elk that die of thirst and starvation during California’s hot, dry summer and fall seasons.
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