GAME HUNTING OPERATOR PROTESTS DEADLINE TO CLEAR SHEEP FROM SANTA CRUZ ISLAND.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. It's the end of the line for 3,000 feral feral untamed; often used in the sense of having escaped from domesticity and run wild. sheep roaming the largest of the eight Channel Islands: A private game operator has been given 90 days to get the flock off Santa Cruz Island San·ta Cruz Island An island off southern California in the northern Santa Barbara Islands. . The National Park Service takes full ownership of the eastern end of the island Feb. 10, completing the Channel Islands National Park Channel Islands National Park: see Santa Barbara Islands; National Parks and Monuments (table). . It means the 12-year-old game business Island Adventures is finished. The Park Service told Jaret Owens, who runs the bow hunting concern, to take the sheep with him, but Owens said there's no cost-effective way to ship the animals off the island 14 miles south of Ventura. Short of an extension that would allow bow hunters time to kill the animals for meat, the sheep would have to be shot and left to rot, Owens said. ``We've got 1,000 baby lambs being born as we speak. No sportsman wants to go out and slaughter them. They're the cutest things in the world,'' Owens said, adding he might abandon the sheep on the island. If that happens, park officials would have to eradicate the animals. ``We're looking at all the various options. One is herding them in some manner and shipping them off. The other is to destroy them,'' said acting park superintendent Tim Setnicka. The sheep, brought to the island in the 1800s, have overgrazed the 96-square-mile island and destroyed native plants and shrubs, the Park Service said. Owens asked for a three-month extension to invite bow and rifle hunters to come to the island with unlimited bag limits. But Setnicka said the entire Island Adventures operation, including hunting and bed-and-breakfast lodges, must be shut down by Feb. 10. Owens holds the lease on 6,500 acres on the island owned by Francis Gherini. Last week, President Clinton signed legislation forcing Gherini to sell his share of the land, which represents about 10 percent of Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, city, United States Santa Cruz (săn`tə kr  z), city (1990 pop. 49,040), seat of Santa Cruz co., W Calif., on the north shore of Monterey Bay; inc. 1866. . The other 90 percent is owned by the Nature Conservancy Nature Conservancy, nonprofit organization established in 1951 to preserve or aid in the preservation of natural environments. It protects wilderness areas in the United States and Canada and is affiliated with similar groups in Latin America and the Caribbean. . ``I'm just disgusted with the federal government,'' Owens said. ``If I had a couple more months, I could get rid of the animals, make them money and save the meat.'' When ownership becomes official, park officials plan to implement an 11-year-old general management plan for the island. Among the plans are elimination of visitor camping and landing fees and restoration of two historic ranch houses. ``You'll have a sense of what the ranch looked like in the late 1800s,'' Setnicka said. Hunters consider the island one of the nation's best bow hunting sites. ``There's no better in the world. My life is worthwhile because I've been to Santa Cruz Island,'' said Kevin Robinson, owner of Archery archery, sport of shooting with bow and arrow, an important military and hunting skill before the introduction of gunpowder. England's Charles II fostered archery as sport, establishing in 1673 the world's oldest continuous archery tournament, the Ancient Scorton Shop Santa Cruz in Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern . ``It's hard to understand the significance of this if you're not a hunter. It's like a golfer losing his favorite golf course,'' said Bruce Cary of Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. , who spend last weekend on the island. |
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