Thread by @5149jamesli

🚨 Gavin Newsom & his allies just forced 12 historic family farms & dairies out of Point Reyes National Seashore in California.

They claim it’s about saving the environment — but the truth couldn't be more different.

Here is the true story — and it's heartbreaking. ⬇️🧵1/

2/ For over 100 years, ranchers and dairy farmers have worked the land at Point Reyes. They built Marin’s organic food movement & supplied fresh milk to Californians.

Now they’re being forced out — by environmental groups, the federal government, and Newsom’s political allies.

3/ When Congress created Point Reyes National Seashore in 1962, ranchers voluntarily sold their land to the federal government under one condition: they could keep ranching.

That promise lasted 60 years — until powerful environmental groups decided to change the rules.

4/ In 2022, three environmental groups — Resource Renewal Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, and Western Watersheds Project sued the National Park Service to block 20-year ranching leases.

The lawsuit set off a chain reaction that led to ranchers losing everything.

5/ At first, the National Park Service defended the ranchers. But then The Nature Conservancy — a billion-dollar “nonprofit” with deep political ties to Newsom —stepped in to negotiate a secret deal.

The result? A $30M payout to ranchers who had no real choice but to leave.

6/ The $30M payout might sound like a lot — until you realize it’s being split across multiple families and businesses.

"You don't want to see the book closed," said rancher Jarrod Mendoza, whose great-grandfather acquired the family’s land in 1919.

7/ Mendoza needs financing to rebuild his family’s barn, which was destroyed in a storm. But thanks to the park’s refusal to grant long-term leases, he couldn’t get a loan.

Now, he’s being forced off his land altogether — along with 11 other ranching families.

8/ Worse? The farmers were placed under a strict gag order — they legally cannot tell the public how this deal really went down.

Begs the question: if this was such a fair outcome, why was it done behind closed doors? Why are the ranchers being silenced? 🤔

9/ And here’s where Biden & Trump come in:

- In 2019, Trump signed an executive order to protect farming in national parks.
- In 2021, Biden reversed it.

The final deal was reached in early January 2025, just weeks before Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2025.

10/ Who brokered the deal?

Rep. Jared Huffman, who represents Point Reyes.

Before Congress, he was an attorney for the NRDC, a powerful environmental lobbying group.

So was he negotiating for his constituents — or for the same activists who wanted the ranchers gone?

11/ But this isn’t about protecting nature — it’s about business, politics, and ideology.

The Park Service now admits it will have to hire private grazing contractors to manage the land and reduce wildfire risk.

So cattle can stay — just not the families who raised them.

12/ Environmental groups sold this as a win for conservation.

But the reality? It was a quiet land transfer — one that just happened to benefit some of the most politically connected non-profits in the country.

And once these farms are gone, they’re gone forever.