BY SHARON EDBERG, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 09/25/21

When a national park erodes environmental justice

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In mid-September, theNational Park Servicefinalized a General Management Plan Amendment (GMPA) for thePoint Reyes National Seashore, changing aruleto allow livestock production to continue for 20 years in this national park in the San Francisco Bay area of California. This rule change, and the ranching it enables, poses an immediate threat to the local environment, the global climate and the people of San Francisco, especially its underserved communities. It also sets an alarming precedent for degrading national parks throughout the country.

Northern California is facing some of themost dangerous climate impacts in the United States. This region leads the nation in terms of drought, wildfires, smoke and ocean degradation. Our summers are gone, and each year is worse than the last. Livestock production in Point Reyes directly…