Graduation Year
2025
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Environment, Economics and Politics
Reader 1
Nancy Neiman
Reader 2
Nicholas Kacher
Terms of Use & License Information
Abstract
In January 2025, the National Park Service’s decision to phase out ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore (PRNS) was widely celebrated as a victory for environmentalism. Yet beneath the headlines lies a more complicated reality. This thesis argues that the removal of historic ranches from PRNS reflects not a triumph of conservation, but a profound missed opportunity for climate leadership, community resilience, and regenerative stewardship. Drawing on historical records, environmental management policies, and case studies such as Straus Family Creamery, this research examines how public perception, litigation, and internal agency pressures shaped the outcome. It explores how ranchers, originally promised continued agricultural use to protect Point Reyes' working landscapes, were marginalized over time in favor of a rigid wilderness ideal. Through analysis of climate consequences—including the loss of carbon farming practices, localized food systems, and sustainable agriculture models—this thesis shows how dismantling these operations paradoxically strengthens the industrial food system and increases greenhouse gas emissions. Ultimately, it calls for a more integrated vision of environmental governance, one that recognizes small-scale, regenerative producers as critical allies in climate resilience rather than obstacles to it.
Recommended Citation
Cunningham, Carlyn R., "Preservation at a Price: Nuanced Environmental Policy and the Loss of Working Landscapes in Point Reyes National Seashore" (2025). Scripps Senior Theses. 2708.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/2708
