Final Settlement Reached In The Longstanding Fight Over Drakes Bay Estero

December 16, 2014 - In early October 2014, just weeks after the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, the Department of Interior signed a Settlement Agreement with the Drakes Bay Oyster Company which will allow the complete removal of this damaging commercial activity from the ecologically sensitive waters of the Estero. The settlement agreement follows the June 2014 refusal of the United States Supreme Court to hear an appeal from the Oyster Company.

The settlement allows the oyster company to harvest shellfish until the end of the 2014, at which time the Park Service will be responsible for removing all of the infrastructure associated with the farm and for restoring Drakes Estero. The Drakes Bay Oyster Co. fought a federal shutdown order after a decision in 2012 by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to not extend the Oyster Farm’s Lease. The company’s owners, the Lunny family, purchased the lease in 2004 knowing full well that it was set to expire in 2012, a provision outlined in the 1976 law that established wilderness in Point Reyes.

CNPSR, along with many other conservation groups, was a strong advocate for Wilderness and the Seashore and countered much of the negative publicity and distortions in the media regarding the controversy.