The settlement in a three-year-old lawsuit is said to involve a roughly $30 million buyout of leases for the seashore’s remaining dairies and cattle ranches, ending an era of private farming within the park that stretches back to its formation in 1962.

Environmentalists scored a major victory Wednesday when the National Park Service agreed to revise its land management plan at Point Reyes National Seashore to better serve the area's native tule elk species.

Nearly all the ranches will give up their leases in exchange for money, ending an agricultural era that began long before the creation of the park.

Of the 14 ranches at Point Reyes, 12 will surrender their leases in the next 15 months. Two beef ranches will remain in operation.

The announcement did not include details of the voluntary buyouts brokered by The Nature Conservancy and said to total about $30 million. At least two ranches are seeking to continue under 20-year lease extensions.

Most cattle ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore will soon come to end under an agreement announced Wednesday by the National Park Service.

The agreement between environmentalists and ranchers resolves decades of conflict over land use at the California national seashore.