John Beck, PRESS DEMOCRAT
Jared Huffman weighs in on the House committee investigation launched by Republicans and the clouded future of the settlement to end most seashore ranching.
When Rep. Jared Huffman was named the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources in December, he summoned a sports analogy to describe how he might face challenges down the road. “I believe we are better prepared than ever to tackle what lies ahead next Congress,” he said. “This is a team sport, and I am excited and ready to lead this team.”
But this past week, he learned that in committee politics, like in sports, there are trick plays you never see coming. Not long after waking up Thursday morning, Huffman, D-San Rafael, said he was blindsided by the announcement of a sweeping investigation into the controversial deal to end most ranching in Point Reyes.
Launched by committee chairman Bruce Westerman, a Republican former football player from Arkansas, it was a partisan shot fired directly into Huffman’s own backyard. An attempt to wrestle control of the 71,000-acre park that has been the focus of intense debate, it will likely prolong a battle many thought had finally been resolved — love it or hate it — after The Nature Conservancy brokered a deal to pay ranchers on 12 out of 14 Point Reyes farms around $30 million to leave the leased land their families had been farming long before the peninsula became a national park in 1963. The agreement, announced Jan. 8, in the final weeks of the Biden administration, was embraced by all parties involved in several years of closed-door mediation, including the three environmental groups that had sued the park in 2022, alleging environmental violations by the ranches.
Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/jared-huffman-house-investigation-point-reyes-ranches/