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Fallow Deer and Vedanta

Fallow Deer and Vedanta

Last updated on: November 28, 2015 at 6:30 pm by Jason M. Brown

Fallow Deer and Vedanta 2015-11-28T18:30:03-08:00 Jason M. Brown

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Point Reyes National Seashore

After my long drive through the Pacific Northwest, I arrived in Point Reyes National Seashore. I have been to here many times to visit my cousin who works for the park, participating in his annual tradition: a New Year’s Midnight Polar Bear dip in Pacific. This weekend, the weather held just enough for some good beach-side hiking and a kayaking trip in Drake’s Estero. We spent time with the local residents of Point Reyes: river otters, elephant seals, harbor seals, hawks, raptors, thousands of ducks and other shorebirds, and a brigade of circling turkey vultures.

Point Reyes National Seashore, located on a sharp peninsula at the western end of Marin County, captures all the charm of California’s rolling hills, but is far enough north to sustain stately Redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens) which take their place among sun-spattered and sweet smelling groves of Bishop Pine (Pinus muricata), Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia), Buckeye (Aesculus californica) and California Bay (Umbellularia californica). It is the traditional territory of the Miwok and Pomo peoples, and the area sustained several hundred small villages before European conquest. After the mission and colonial periods, it was proposed as a National Park in the 1960s, yet once established, the park allowed several historic cattle, dairy and oyster operations to continue within park boundaries.

To my knowledge, Point Reyes is one of the few places in the US Park Service that maintains this kind of balance between agriculture and ecological preservation. This can lead to conflict. For example, the thriving population of Tule Elk (Cervus canadensis nannodes) that was reintroduced to the Peninsula in the 1970s, often clash with farmers’ cattle over grazing space, sparking controversy over whether or not to cull from the elk herd. In addition, the park continues to monitor the impact cattle have on water quality which may be one of many factors that has seen the Peninsula’s salmon runs come to the brink of extirpation, but progress is being made to restore salmon numbers and reduce impacts on creeks and streams. All things considered, Point Reyes National Seashore is an example of a place where because development pressure is checked due to the park’s protected status, human beings can make a living on the land, and not entirely marginalize the myriad nonhumans that have called this place home for thousands of years. Yet, despite their tolerance of exotic ungulates (cows), there are some exotics that have not benefited from this harmonious model. I’ll explain.

Cypress and Eucalyptus Trees line the entrance of the Vedanta Retreat Center

On my way out of the park, I decided to stop at the 2,200 acre Vedanta Retreat Center and see if I could talk to anyone. As I entered the driveway I was greeted by a long corridor of old growth Monterey Cypress (Hesperocyparis macrocarpa) and Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) trees. Finding myself face-to-face with a friendly monk that appeared at the ring of a doorbell, I told him I had stopped by to learn about the place. The pony-tailed man with bright eyes and a few day beard gestured with his hands as he told me that the property was purchased in 1946 for a small group of monks, which eventually opened it to retreatants who make up the bulk of visitors to the Center.

The monks are members of the Ramakrishnan Order, which was founded by the famed Hindu mystic Sri Ramakrishna. In 1894, Ramakrishna’s disciple Swami Vivekananda helped found the Vedanta Society which was one of the first organizations to introduce Hinduism and Vedanta Philosophy to North America. Having just attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions, I was pleased to hear that Swami Vivekananda spoke at the very first Parliament in 1893 to rave reviews.

Interfaith Mural on Retreat Center Barn

Briefly, Vedanta is an umbrella term for a branch of Hindu philosophy and practice that focuses on interpreting the Hindu scriptures called the Upanishads (which translates as ‘sitting at the feet of’). Vedanta focuses on questions surrounding the relationship between the human soul and the Divine (Atman and Brahman). In its most nondual approach, there is no difference between Atman and Brahman, and all things can be seen as participating in God. The world itself is an embodiment of the Divine.

This is where the unfortunate ungulates come in. The Retreat Center maintains a good relationship with the park. However, as the monk told me, about ten years ago the park decided to exterminate two exotic deer species that had been introduced in the 1940s. These fallow deer (Dama dama and Axis axis), originally from India themselves, were the target of aggressive management by the park who saw the need to eradicate any species that “threaten to alter natural ecosystems.” There was a firestorm of controversy with many locals, including the monks, objecting. The Humane Society even wrote its own recommendations to the park to focus on sterilization. In the end, the park ended up culling most of the deer. However, the monks requested that no deer be killed on their property. For this reason, the park decided move forward with sterilizing the small number that remained. The deer now spend most of their time at the retreat center. Because all living things are seen as an embodiment of the Divine, to kill any living being, even if it is negatively affecting the native species and ecological integrity of Point Reyes was anathema.

Fallow Deer in Clearing

After speaking with the monk for several minutes, he excused himself and invited me to walk the grounds. Passing a large bull pen housing several vocal and muscular bull, I walked to the top of a small hill and clearing. To my left I saw a small herd of the feral deer the monk had told me about, all wearing tracking collars. Some of them looked like you might expect deer to look like, but about a dozen were pure white, and had a mystical quality to them as they stared stock still in my direction, taking in my scent. They were beautiful, and when they finally spooked I followed them into the nearby woods and watched them for a little while before heading back to my truck.

I find the words of the monk challenging. If everything is an embodiment of the Divine, can a species ever be out of place? Certainly the ‘Divinity’ embodied by a given creature does not increase or decrease depending on its location with relation to its evolutionary origins. Is there a kind of religious fundamentalism in the park’s approach to exotic species? I wouldn’t go that far, but the monks’ approach to the exotic species certainly throws an interesting light on questions of nativity, Divinity, and ecological integrity. Certainly there is value in restoring intact ecosystems that flourished without us for thousands of years. However, the park does not include the participation of indigenous peoples, who also occupied this land for thousands of years, and were then brutally expropriated from it so that I could eventually go hiking on the weekends. These are all important questions that I am taking with me as I travel the West Coast of California, a place that is known for the fertile ground it has provided for eastern spiritual traditions, unfortunately eastern ungulates have not been quite so lucky.

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