acquired the ranch in the 1940s after World War II. “He actually got into the ranching business by accident,” he says, explaining that he was the general manager of a global steamship company in San Francisco and signed a note for a distant relative who wanted to buy a dairy in Point Reyes, but couldn’t qualify for a loan. The man never did take over the ranch, and “My grandfather had a dairy on his hands,” he says. He didn’t know where Point Reyes was but decided to take a sabbatical to experience farm life and found that he loved living on the ranch and stayed. Kevin’s father, Joe, was a sophomore at St. Ignatius Preparatory School in San Francisco at the time and skipped a year of school to work on the ranch and then went to Tomales High School, where he took agriculture classes and fit right in. “He’s 94 and still on the ranch,” he says, and he helps where he can, sometimes herding cows to get them on the right side of the fence. Lunny believes that when the Point Reyes National Seashore was created, Congress wanted to preserve agriculture, and the intent was to allow ranching to continue, not stop it. “When the park first took over, things were good,” he says, but about 20 years ago, things started to change. The first sign that agriculture was at risk came in 2011, when Salazar decided against renewing the lease that Lunny held on Drake’s Bay Oyster Farm on Drake’s Estero, forcing the business to close in 2014. “That was when we really saw a change,” he says, and the ranchers started to wonder if they might be next. Then, justifying their fears, the NPS imposed new requirements, such as reducing the number of cattle they were allowed to have, requiring increased reporting and implementing new regulations
that made it harder for the ranches to survive. Finally, negotiations came with the offer of a buyout. And, although the agreement to sell each lease was voluntary, Lunny still describes it as “tragic.” “None of us are happy with it,” says Lunny. “My dad came to this decision before we did. No matter what you do, you’re going to have the same landlords, and it becomes untenable. That doesn’t make it easy; it’s super difficult.” Still, a whole host of reasons led his family to accept the offer. “We all dearly love where we are,” he says. But Lunny recognized that the challenges weren’t going to go away, and the lawsuits and attacks on agriculture were likely to continue. “It was becoming clear that our future was in trouble no matter what,” he says. Starting over in ranching elsewhere isn’t financially feasible—so he, his wife Nancy and his father will likely move to Auburn, where they hope to keep a connection to agriculture and grazing, perhaps keeping a few cows. He observes that every family is going through the same challenges, and it’s more than just ranching, because it impacts people at the human and family level. “Everybody has tough decisions ahead,” he says. Among those negatively affected are an estimated 90 ranch workers and their families, who live on the ranches. As employees, the. workers were not represented in the confidential negotiations, but the closure of the ranches means they will lose both their jobs and their homes. “It’s unfortunate that they were not at the table,” says Bell. He reports that they were a source of concern and thus a critical element in negotiations, and the settlement agreement allocates an estimated $2 million to assist them. In addition, The Nature Conservancy and local partners will work with them to design and carry out a transition plan.
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40 NorthBaybiz
March 2025
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