Jared Huffman

This editorial is from the Marin Independent-Journal:

Federal dollars brought home by Rep. Jared Huffman to help struggling dairies in Marin County are going to be invested in helping three dairies that were bought out of their longstanding leases in the Point Reyes National Seashore get a new start.

Huffman got the earmarked funds before a dozen dairy and cattle ranches took multi-million-dollar buyouts of their park leases — a potential blow to local agriculture and West Marin’s economy.

Now the county is using the money to help three of the dairies to restart on acreage in Sonoma County.

There are strings attached, but the cash can help the ranching families get a new start, continuing livelihoods that stretch back for generations.

The money can’t be used to acquire land or build a milking barn. It has to be used for waste storage, composting equipment, erosion prevention, air and water quality improvements and irrigation controls.

Huffman said he got the funds two years ago to help Marin and Sonoma ranchers who were facing significant problems caused by the drought, growing competition in the organic milk market, rising feed costs and termination of land leases.

But the cash can still help them cover the cost of restarting and modernizing their operations.

The announcement of the grants come at a time when Huffman faces criticism from a political challenger, Bolinas rancher Nicolette Hahn Niman. She was on last Tuesday’s ballot, running against the incumbent Democrat who is running far ahead in his bid for a seventh term as voting counting continues. She has criticized Huffman for facilitating the buyout of the park ranches despite the seashore’s newly adopted management plan, which called for long-term lease extensions for the dairy and cattle ranches.

Niman did not take the Nature Conservancy’s buyout offer, which led to shuttering 12 of the park’s historic ranches. In fact, she and her husband, Bill Niman, are suing the park service over its decision to prohibit agricultural operations on those lands.

She says the funding is too little, too late. In fact, she calls it “an attempt to cover up the damage that was caused to the community by the loss of these farming and ranching families and the food they were producing.”

Huffman says the funds reflect his longstanding support for the historic leases. He says he was not actively involved in the negotiations, and he told the Marin Independent Journal editorial board recently that he was surprised that so many of the ranches took the buyout.

Those buyouts — closing a dozen multi-generational dairy and cattle ranches — were part of the settlement of a lawsuit brought against the park service, contesting the long-term private leases.

Public disclosure of the negotiations was slim due to a nondisclosure pact agreed to by the parties involved in the agreement.

Unfortunately, those closed-door talks lacked any public voices from Huffman or state and local politicians who should have raised concerns regarding the possible impacts the closure of 12 ranches would have on West Marin’s economy — local jobs, suppliers and even public schools. The sudden unraveling of the park’s plan, which was the product of a yearslong public process, should have prompted political action. It did not. That hands-off approach could exact a significant toll — far greater than the $950,000 Huffman brought home to his district.

The county has already spent more than that for housing for displaced ranch workers and their families.

Still, federal cash will help three of those ranching families establish new roots within the same economy that has been their homes and livelihoods for decades.

Huffman got the funding before those buyouts were agreed to and took place.

The buyouts raised the need for the funds.

The earmark will help, but it is far from a remedy.