The National Park Service is being urged by the Sierra Club and over 50 conservation organizations to save Tule Elk at Point Reyes National Seashore, California.
At Point Reyes National Seashore, rare endemic Tule Elk are dying of thirst and malnutrition. Held captive behind an 8-foot-high, 3-mile-long fence, the northern herds are kept from vital grazing lands and adequate water resources. Tomales Point within Point Reyes has become a graveyard for more than 400 elk over the past nine years, with 152 elk perishing in the last year alone, the Sierra Club stated.
"The federally protected Tule Elk at Tomales Point are suffering and perishing at alarming rates due to an outdated General Management Plan that impedes the ability of these animals to find water in a drought-prone region,” Animal Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Stephen Wells said, in a report by the Harvard Law Clinic. “It’s the responsibility of The National Park Service to ensure Tule Elk are protected and not barred from access to water that would help them survive in conditions that are likely to worsen as a result of climate change."
The NPS says that the elk population declines at Tomales Point are drought-related but there is “no evidence the herd decline is due to dehydration and a lack of water.” The NPS started providing supplementary water to Tomales Point in June.
Volunteers are now bringing water to the animals.
Seventy volunteers gathered recently to lug water over a 6-mile round-trip hike to add about 100 gallons of water to a severely diminished waterhole inside the reserve, reports CBS-TV in San Francisco.
The water delivery by volunteers is largely symbolic—it is not a long-term solution. The purpose is to draw attention to the lack of water resources for the elk, which many people believe the Park Service is obligated to provide. The Park Service contends elk are in bad shape from lack of forage from the drought, not lack of water, Outdoor Life reported.
