A Multipronged Tussle Over the Fate of Herds Living in an Island Park

[XemaSab]

There are hunters who dream about places like this.

The game — unusually large Kaibab deer, Roosevelt elk that lope like thoroughbreds along the wind-scoured ridgelines — are trophy quality. All it takes to bag one is a 30-mile trip across the Santa Barbara Channel, a rifle, good aim, a minimum fee of about $8,000 and the existing agreement by the National Park Service to close 45,000 acres of parkland to the public, August through December.

Close a public park to make way for a private hunt? That is not the Park Service’s preference. When it acquired Santa Rosa Island at the time the Channel Islands National Park was formed in 1986, it accepted a 25-year transition period during which the hunting would continue. It wants the animals off the island. The 1,150 deer and elk, park officials say, compromise the native ecosystem — by munching on seedlings of the rare island oaks, for instance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/09/us/09hunt.html?ref=us

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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2552496