Congressman takes the fight for rural California to D.C.
Doug LaMalfa is taking the fight for California's rural issues, from water mismanagement to ranch closures, all the way to Washington.
Doug LaMalfa is one of seven representatives who signed onto a federal investigation into ranch closures on Point Reyes, California. The congressman from California’s 1st district says this is just one of the steps he hopes to take to help rural residents of his state. He’s also working to raise awareness on water mismanagement in California, including dam removals that threaten food production.
“Klamath Dam tear-downs with more being threatened, water taken more and more from farmers going back over 30 years, I’ve seen more than enough injustice inside and outside the area I represent in California,” he says. “It must be stopped.”
One of seven representatives who signed on to the federal investigation in Point Reyes
Seven representatives from the House Committee on Natural Resources, of which LaMalfa is a member, has vowed to look into the secretive agreement between a handful of environmental NGOs, 12 ranching families, and the National Park Service that created a national stir when it was announced earlier this year.
LaMalfa calls the Point Reyes deal a “travesty.”
“As I became aware of this arrangement I worked to alert Trump authorities, colleagues on House committees and publicizing through my own media and House Floor speech time,” he says. “Upon confirmation of new Interior Secretary Burgum, I took this calamity to his team. In my view, no way can this dirty dealing be allowed to stand.”
LaMalfa first heard about the Point Reyes ranch closures in early January from his constituents. The closures were announced to the public in the final days of the Biden administration. LaMalfa waited until Trump took office and Doug Burgum became chief of the Department of the Interior, which oversees the Park Service, before making his move.
“We are seeking a desist of all Parks additional action to implement this act which certainly appears to fly in the face of congressional legislative intent. Read as: against the law.”
In the final stretch of mediation, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) entered into talks between ranchers, environmental groups, and the Park Service. In early January, they announced a plan to buy out the 12 ranchers’ grazing leases for an undisclosed amount. Ranchers were given 15 months to leave.
Ranking Democrat on House Natural Resources Committee represents Point Reyes
Congressman Jared Huffman is the ranking Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee and the district representative for Point Reyes. Huffman says he was not notified before his Republican colleagues sent out letters announcing their investigation.
He and LaMalfa represent escalating tensions between rural and urban California in a local clash that appears headed for a national stage.
For Huffman’s constituents, however, agriculture doesn’t appear to be a partisan issue. Last November, a ballot initiative in Sonoma County that would have banned some farms was defeated by 85% in a heavily blue district.
Yet Huffman has maintained that efforts to investigate foul play on Point Reyes are political, calling LaMalfa and his six colleagues “sanctimonious partisan opportunists” who are “pretending to help ranchers who don’t want them to help them.”
Elsewhere in his interview with The Press Democrat, Huffman appeared to make the case for The Nature Conservancy against his own constituents, saying that amending the Point Reyes management plan to include ranching would mean the multi-billion dollar nonprofit has a right to renege.
“I think TNC would revoke the whole deal,” he told the paper. “It is all premised on the modification to the general management plan, on certain assumptions about how the land will be managed going forward, for ecological values, for elk, for a whole bunch of other things. And there’s no way that someone could decide, OK, we’re going to take the dough and we’re going to unwind everything else in the deal. That will never fly.”
Huffman, a former environmental attorney, listed the years of conflict and the “not very lucrative” nature of agriculture as reasons the ranchers were happy to leave their operations. He the urged the ranchers to “speak up” and voice their approval of the deal. The ranchers are bound by strict NDAs as part of their buyout. According to multiple sources, conditions include a strict prohibition against saying anything negative about TNC.
Despite Huffman’s insistence that subpoenas and public hearings would prove “embarrassing” for Republicans, LaMalfa says hearings are indeed coming.
“With the greater attention now being received on this dirty deal, my House National Resources committee will be scheduling a hearing to make public and demand disclosure and ultimately answers with accountability.”
Point Reyes National Seashore designed to include agriculture
LaMalfa believes something needs to be done about the environmental groups and NGOs that hold power in land management decisions.
“With the new wrinkle of ever-more restrictive environmental laws being a challenge and then finally weaponized by environmental groups and politicians mostly standing down or feigning support, it has become untenable for growers to keep fighting the very well-heeled teams of environmental groups and their lawyers.”
When Point Reyes National Seashore was first declared federal land in the 1962, it was with an agreement that existing ranchers would be allowed to stay on with long-term agricultural leases.
“The deal was struck to allow them to farm it into perpetuity,” LaMalfa says. “Preserving the agricultural component was part of the agreement and the legislation.”
Protecting the agricultural history of the peninsula was seen as vital to the culture and identity of the community and the well-being of the land itself. But things changed when a group of environmental NGOs sued the Park Service to remove the ranchers.
“Very short-term leases made expensive investments in environmental infrastructure based on dubious water samplings by biased samplers,” he says. “This finally led to the duress that became the settlement buyout, brokered in secret with strict nondisclosure gag orders held to the heads of these growers.”
He adds that the apparently celebratory response of the Park Service when the ranchers’ exit was announced casts additional doubt that what happened to the Point Reyes ranchers was fair.
“It occurring in the late eleventh hour of the Biden era and cheered by supposedly unbiased Parks staff has cast the extreme stench of foul play on the deal.”
Urban/rural divide in the Golden State
Huffman’s district also includes the Potter Valley Project dams LaMalfa referenced, which are slated for removal. The dams supply 600,000 residents and numerous agricultural communities. LaMalfa brought up their scheduled destruction in a recent speech on the House floor.
“The utility decided it’s not worth the fight anymore, so they’ve abandoned it. And if they get their way it will be torn out soon too. So, it’s just one losing combination after another on this, all in the name of the environment, and another loser for the people. The tear-out of the Klamath Dams; cost the people $450 million to remove those. $250 million of it came from a state water bond…and another $200 million came from ratepayers…so the company could skate out of there without any real liability on the dams they owned. That was the honey deal that was put together.”
For his part, in a town hall in Ukiah earlier this month, Huffman used partisan language similar to his description of Point Reyes naysayers for constituents concerned about losing water, calling them “very political people” engaged in spreading a “firehose of disinformation.”
LaMalfa is taking this opportunity to raise the plight of rural California in Washington. Forcing some sunlight on the Point Reyes ranch closures is a start.
“This is my hope for the good people battling so long from eminent domain bullying in 1961 to the debacle of third parties now wearing people down,” LaMalfa says. “Given the shaky, murky way this arrangement was dumped on these innocent stewards of our lands and high quality food supply, how can any of us just watch and accept it? Not us.”
I was at the Ukiah town hall meeting to address Huffman with some facts about the removal of Scott dam but the biased majority attending the meeting were only there for Trump bashing and not wanting to hear any questions about the loss of water resources and the danger of no lake for fire suppression and water supply during droughts. I've questioned the cost of retro fitting the damn for earth quake code, but no one wants to consider it. I questioned an engineer at a friends of the Eel meeting over 20 years ago about an estimate to retro fit the damn compared to removal cost. He guessed it would be half to 1/3 the cost of removal so please keep fighting these insane people with no concept of the damage they're about to do. Greg Israel
Point Reyes National Seashore is supposed to include agriculture not wipe out local food producers. This is a very dirty deal that we hope will be exposed. Jared Huffman is no friend to the people who want a strong local food supply. Follow the money and you will learn who Huffman really works for… He’s not representing the people in his district. He’s representing those elites who want to tokenize “nature” as an asset on the Point Reyes National Seashore.
Check out Whitney Webb explaining “tokenizing nature”, the Nature Conservancy’s role, etc. on various podcasts and you will learn what’s the motive behind ruining our local food producers out on The Point.
The amendment to the General Management Plan must surely be illegal because with the Point Reyes ranchers and farmers under gag order the PUBLIC was kept out of what should have been an open public process with public participation but instead there were backroom deals and gag orders. Watch how this gets exposed under the investigation.
Shame on Huffman not stopping gag orders, dirty back room deals hurting local food producers, their families, their employees, the Point Reyes community and the greater community in Northern California. Huffman has violated the public trust. Vote him out!