If someone told you they wanted to open a commercial business in a national park, your answer might be obvious—Who wants a McDonalds when you’re out in nature? But it can be more complicated than that.
Drakes Bay Oyster Company, an oyster farm in the Point Reyes National Seashore, is at the center of a nationwide debate over what it means to preserve wilderness. When the national seashore was created, the oyster farm got a 40 year lease to operate on the park land. That lease expired at the end of 2012, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar refused to renew it.
