By August 1, the last two ranching families in the infamous Point Reyes buyout will be gone.
Keely Covello has covered this story since January of 2025. More than 18 months, close to 20 articles, interviews with the ranchers, ecologists, attorneys, and neighbors watching a 150-year-old community dissolve in real time.
With the ending now days away, this episode of The Read is the whole story, start to finish, in one place for the first time. If you have followed along, this is the story assembled into a single arc. If you are new to it, this is everything you need to know about what happened here, and why it should matter to you no matter where you live in the United States.
The episode runs through the parts of this story that never made the national coverage:
The whistleblower. A former Park Service superintendent documented the government’s playbook in 2006, such as using water-quality complaints as a weapon to get ranchers off the Channel Islands. Then he stood in front of the Point Reyes families in 2014 and told them they were next.
The scientist. A grazing ecologist turned rancher who gathered 10 years of data showing how the ranchers and their cattle benefited Point Reyes and tried in vain to get someone at the Park Service to care.
The Blackhawk. The 1997 raid on the last holdout ranch on Santa Cruz Island. Officers in ski masks pulled a 15 year-old girl out of bed, as the government mobilized to seize the last piece of private land in Channel Islands National Park.
The lawfare. The ranchers won their environmental review, earned a recommendation for renewed 20-year leases, and then watched the same green groups sue again because they did not like the outcome.
The conspiracy. Internal emails revealed Park Service officials, who portrayed themselves themselves as neutral, celebrated the ranchers’ removal. Did they conspire with the NGOs all along to get the ranchers out?
The money. The $10 million state grant The Nature Conservancy secured before the deal was finalized, that the ranchers were never told existed. The $40 million in donor dinners hosted in Marin County mansions to discuss “the future of Point Reyes” over wine and appetizers. Congressman Jared Huffman who brought the NGO into the talks and then hosted the town hall for a post-mortem after the papers were already signed.
The last rancher standing. David Evans, the one rancher free to speak because he never signed an NDA, who gave UNWON his first interview.
This is not only a California story. The same agency, running the same playbook, has now moved ranchers off many places across the United States. Open questions remain, and UNWON is not done following this story.
Listen to the full episode above. All of the reporting behind it, close to 20 pieces, is here on UNWON.
The Read is UNWON’s narrated journalism, reported and hosted by Keely Brazil Covello. This episode is a retrospective drawn from 18 months of coverage.
Show Notes
The Point Reyes Act of 1962 and the 1978 amendment, codified at 16 U.S.C. § 459c-5, which gave the ranching families first right of refusal on their leases
Chris Bray’s FOIA reporting on the National Park Service emails
Sonoma Mountain Institute grassland monitoring data referenced by Nate Chisholm
Sponsored by Ranch Vision: www.ranchvision.io
Special thanks to Josh Woolwine for creating our intro. Follow Josh at www.instagram.com/hjwoolwine.
READ MORE:
BEFORE POINT REYES: In 1997, the Park Service Sent a Blackhawk to Raid the Last Holdout Ranch on Santa Cruz Island
Years before the betrayal of the Point Reyes ranchers, the National Park Service had its sights set on creating a national park on the Channel Islands. The story of how this park came to be is largely forgotten, but its history may prove instructive to current events.
12 Years Ago, Channel Islands Superintendent Warned Point Reyes Ranchers the National Park Service was Coming for Them: "NPS Has No Soul."
In 1998, former Channel Islands superintendent Tim Setnicka witnessed the National Park Service (NPS) drive Vail & Vickers ranch off Santa Rosa Island in their militant and ultimately successful effort to transform the five islands into a national park and expel all ranchers and “non-native species”—including cattle, horses, deer, and elk—in the process.
Is There a Conspiracy Against Ranching in the Federal Government?
In the town of Bolinas, just south of Point Reyes, Billie Thibodeau runs a grazing-for-hire service, cleaning up fire fuel.
Last rancher on Point Reyes peninsula joins lawsuit against the Park Service
David Evans, the last rancher on Point Reyes peninsula, is suing the National Park Service after the secretive deal that has his neighbors packing up to leave. Evans was not part of the lawsuit and subsequent me…
