Replacing Private Cows With Government-Sourced Contract Cows, to Fix the Harm Caused by Cows

All the cultural and political madness of the age, written clearly on a piece of land.

I’ve written a couple of brief posts about the conflict over the historic practice of ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore, where cattle ranchers are about to disappear from the landscape for the first time since the 1850s. Substack is good about providing metrics, and I see that those posts have received a lot less attention and enthusiasm than most of what I write. But I promise: If you dig into the story I’m going to link to today, you’ll see all of the absurdity and waste that we’re all living through expressed in a clear, deeply reported narrative about real people.

Decisions made on the basis of false arguments that don’t stand up to the slightest scrutiny. Emotion over evidence. Outside activists destroying the disciplined work of local practitioners. Lawsuits that force tragic choices through the mechanism of litigation costs and exhaustion, rather than any mechanism of justice.

This isn’t a local story. It’s about all of us. It’s about the country and the way it works, about broken systems and sick culture, and the losses that we’re causing ourselves with bad choices.

The story I’m talking about appeared in the Point Reyes Light a couple days ago, in an extremely local forum with deep roots in the place it covers:

It’s long, and it covers the history of a place and a family. It’s written with a remarkably sharp eye to the political tactics of activist groups, and look for the discussion about “Tim Setnicka, a former superintendent of Channel Islands National Park, who had seen this strategy before.” You will learn something reading this story. Not much journalism does this anymore, but you’ll walk away knowing something you didn’t know when you started reading. Also watch closely for the important discussion with the environmental historian Laura Watt, a brilliant observer of the place and the conflict. In one of my earlier posts, I talked about the language in the activist lawsuit that said that visitors to the seashore have a right to engage with the land spiritually, and their ability to enjoy that spiritual right is destroyed if they see cows. In her work, Laura Watt examines that kind of premise with great clarity.

But above all, watch for the voices of the Lunny family. The headline to this post will make sense to you after you read what they have to say, and you’ll probably make the same facial expression I made when I got to that part.

You can read the story in the Point Reyes Light by clicking this link, and I ask you to take the time. It’s worth it. One important note about the paywall: The Light allows every visitor one free story before you have to sign up for access, so first time visitors to this local newspaper website shouldn’t encounter a paywall. But if you leave and go back later to finish the story, you may lose the ability to get to the thing you’re trying to read.

I’m headed for Point Reyes very soon, though my conversations with the National Park Service suggest that I won’t be having a lot of deep and freewheeling discussion with government officials when I get there. Some of the ranchers are thinking about it. “You’ve never heard of me, but I’m from Los Angeles, and I want a bunch of your time.” What an appealing offer, right? We’ll see. At the very least, I’ll do some focused wandering and get a look at what we’re about to lose. I find it unimaginably tragic and stupid, and I hope you’ll give the topic some attention. It’s about bigger things, and we should be discussing the loss. Here’s the link again. Please read this. It’s not a local story.