Drakes Bay Oyster Co.
Pacific oysters were introduced in Drakes Estero in the 1930s, at
about the same time experimental plantings began in Tomales Bay. Drakes Bay Oyster Company was established in 1935 and three years later the company started canning oysters for export. The lease area was legally reduced by two thirds in the 1950s and the balance designated as a clam and eelgrass preserve. Charlie Johnson started Johnson’s Oyster Farm (now called Drakes Bay Family Farms, owners of Drakes Bay Oyster Company) in 1957. The Lunny family acquired Johnson’s lease in 2004. A long-time farming family in the Point Reyes National Seashore (PRNS), the Lunnys also run the neighboring Historic G Ranch farm and have been farming cattle for eighty years. Drakes Estero produces an oyster that is distinct in taste—brinier, and saltier—from those found in Tomales Bay.
Kevin Lunny and his family face the unique challenge of trying to
gain a special use permit to continue farming oysters in an area designated for national wilderness. The issue has become a nationally publicized battle and has two distinct sides: those who favor returning the area to wilderness and those who campaign for regional food sources and the positive effects of oyster farming. When PRNS was established, farms that existed within the proposed protected area were offered twenty, thirty and forty-year “reservation or right of use” (ROU) permits that allowed them to continue to farm for a certain period of time. Once the ROU expired, the farm would then be eligible for a subsequent special operation use permit at the discretion of the National Parks Service (NPS). Most farms opted back then for a twenty-year ROU. Charlie Johnson chose a forty-year one that expires in 2012.
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