Point Reyes
Belongs to All of Us
Twelve ranching families. Eighty-nine farmworkers. 150 years of history. All removed in secret — without a single public hearing. Greg was already researching whether to run for Congress when he drove to Point Reyes on December 11, 2025 — and discovered the ranchers were gone. The issue found him ten days before he gathered his first signature.
How Greg and Point Reyes Found Each Other
Point Reyes did not inspire Greg to run for Congress. He was still researching whether to run when he drove out there. He discovered the ranchers were gone on December 11, 2025 — ten days before he gathered his first nomination signature, and nearly two months before he filed his candidacy papers. The issue and the candidacy grew together. Neither caused the other.
"I was researching whether to run — not yet committed — when I drove to Point Reyes on December 11, 2025 to see if my composting idea was feasible. The ranchers were gone. I knew immediately what kind of process failure that was. Eight days later I started gathering signatures. The issue didn't make me a candidate. But it made me a more determined one."
December 9, 2025 — Marin County Board of Supervisors
Still researching whether to run — no signatures gathered, no papers filed — Greg presented his biogas–compost solution to the Marin County Board of Supervisors as a private citizen on December 9, 2025. Two days later he drove to Point Reyes to check whether the idea was workable. That is when he found the ranchers were gone.
The forest slash–livestock manure–biogas–composting framework: combine displaced ranch waste with forest cuttings in anaerobic digesters → produce clean methane energy → turn the leftover material into rich compost → rebuild West Marin's soil → reduce wildfire fuel loads. Zero new land required. Revenue-positive. Measurable. This is what "Show Your Work" looks like before you even announce a campaign.
A Secret Deal Changed Everything
Point Reyes National Seashore is a beautiful stretch of California coast that belongs to all Americans. For 150 years, ranching families lived there, producing some of the world's finest dairy and beef — and keeping the land healthy. Then in January 2025, everything changed behind closed doors.
Real People. Real Food. Real History.
This was not just a policy change. Real families lost their homes, their livelihoods, and their futures — with no warning, no severance, and no public hearing.
Your Money. Their Deal.
The American taxpayer paid to build Point Reyes into what it was. A private organization bought control of it for pennies on the dollar.
Why NEPA Matters to Every American
NEPA — the National Environmental Policy Act — is the law that says before the government makes big decisions about public land, they must tell the public and take comments. It is your legal right to have a voice. At Point Reyes, that right was taken away.[13,14]
Think of it like a school building being sold
Imagine your local public school — built with taxpayer money — being sold to a private company. By law, there must be public hearings. Parents and neighbors get to speak. But what if the school board sold it anyway through secret meetings, with a gag order on the principal? That is exactly what happened at Point Reyes. The "school" is 18,000 acres of your land. The "gag order" is the NDA. And the law that was broken is called NEPA.
This is not just a California problem
The blueprint used at Point Reyes — private mediation, no public hearings, NDA enforcement, private money substituting for Congressional appropriation — is now being used by the current administration to open offshore oil drilling on the California coast. When one public land is managed without public input, it becomes the template for every public land. That's why ranchers in Montana and Colorado are watching this case.
Huffman Said One Thing. Then Did Another.
The documented record of Representative Huffman's public positions on Point Reyes ranching — and what he did behind closed doors — raises serious questions that voters deserve answered. Every entry below is sourced to primary documents or on-record named sources.
The "Behind the Scenes" claims in this timeline rely primarily on the Press Democrat's two-part investigative series by reporter D. Brennan (January–February 2025), which is based on on-record named sources including Michael Mantell, representatives of TNC, and direct statements by Huffman himself. These constitute the highest-quality available secondary source for the 2022–2025 confidential mediation period. For formal legal or regulatory use, the underlying primary documents — NPS internal records, Resources Legacy Fund IRS Form 990s, TNC grant records — should be independently obtained. Full APA citations are in the References section below.
He Didn't Just Talk. He Acted.
Greg was already researching how to run for Congress when he discovered the Point Reyes crisis — not the other way around. What he found there, as a former Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources agent who knows what proper public process looks like, made him a more determined candidate. The advocacy and the candidacy have grown together. Here is the documented record of what he has actually done.
📋 DOI Inspector General Complaint
Filed a formal ethics complaint documenting six specific failures by Representative Huffman and the NPS — including NDA suppression of First Amendment rights, failure of Congressional appropriations authority, and the H5N1 biosurveillance gap now active at Point Reyes itself.
📁 FOIA Request (DOI-2026-003984)
Filed a 25-category Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of the Interior seeking all records on the January 2025 settlement — asking what changed between the 2021 public process and the 2025 secret deal.
✉️ Mailed Letters to 988 Households
Personally paid to send a four-page letter — not an email, a real letter — to approximately 988 Point Reyes and West Marin residents explaining the settlement, the NEPA bypass, and how to demand accountability. This was before he was a candidate.
📜 Wrote the Federal Lands Stewardship and Human Sustenance Act
Drafted federal legislation to prevent this from ever happening again — requiring Congressional authorization, NEPA review, and public hearings before any private organization can acquire management control of National Seashore land.
🏛️ Briefed 104 Congressional Offices
Briefed staff in 104 congressional offices across both parties on the Agricultural Resilience Imperative — connecting the Point Reyes food security loss to the national food supply crisis.
📰 Published in 5 States
Published letters to the editor in Montana, Colorado, Delaware, and California explaining why this California issue matters across the American West — and beyond. When federal land precedent is set, every state feels it.
"I will accept whatever decision Congress makes after a fair, open, public process. If Congress holds field hearings, hears testimony from all stakeholders, and determines that removing the ranchers serves the public interest — I will respect that decision. What I cannot accept is a decision of this magnitude made in secret, funded by an outside corporation, and enforced through NDAs that silence American citizens. This is not about the outcome. This is about the process."— Gregory Burgess · Third-Generation Marin County Native · NPP Candidate, CA-2
Your Voice Still Matters
The ranching families signed NDAs. You didn't. You are a free American citizen with the right to speak to your government. Here is how.
File an Ethics Complaint
Greg has created a free template you can use to file your own complaint about the PRNS settlement process with the House Committee on Ethics. You don't need a lawyer — you need your voice and your name.
Get the TemplateContact Rep. Huffman
Ask him one simple question: why has he held zero public hearings on a decision that displaced 89 people from their homes and removed 12 world-class farms from public land?
Contact His OfficeRead Greg's Bills
The From Seashore to Stockyard Act and the Federal Lands Stewardship and Human Sustenance Act are fully drafted legislation — not talking points — that would prevent this from happening again on any public land in America.
Read the Bills"I took field trips to Point Reyes with Mrs. Terwilliger in elementary school. I watched this community work because families and land took care of each other. I tip 20% to whoever makes and serves my food — it is a sacred act. I depend on farmers, ranchers, and fishermen for my very existence. The decision made in January 2025 was made without you. Every conversation from here forward will not be."
— Gregory Burgess · Candidate, CA-2 · No Party PreferenceResearch & Documentation
All factual claims on this page are documented below. Citations follow APA 7th edition format. "Show Your Work" applies here too.
Note on the $30 million TNC settlement figure and acreage: The $30 million figure has been widely reported in news media including the Press Democrat and Point Reyes Light and is referenced in legal filings in the Northern District of California. An independent appraisal was not conducted as part of the public record. The most defensible acreage figure is 17,000 acres, sourced to TNC's own website (H6), which supersedes earlier reports of 16,000 or 18,000 acres in other documents. Greg Burgess's campaign treats all reported figures as reported, not independently verified unless otherwise noted.