PARK OFFICIALS WANT TO CLEAR DEER, ELK OFF 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. The National Park Service wants to remove deer and elk grazing on Santa Rosa Island Santa Rosa Island, narrow barrier beach between the Gulf of Mexico and Santa Rosa Sound, NW Fla. in the vicinity of Pensacola, extending c.50 mi (80 km) parallel to the coast. It is the site of Fort Pickens and of a missile-launching station. The island is also a resort area. to protect rare plants and clean up polluted streams. But the proposal by managers of the Channel Islands National Park Channel Islands National Park: see Santa Barbara Islands; National Parks and Monuments (table). does not phase out the 6,500 head of cattle now being fattened on island before they are ferried 40 miles across the Santa Barbara Channel The Santa Barbara Channel is that part of the Pacific Ocean which separates the mainland of California from the northern Channel Islands. It is generally south of the city of Santa Barbara, and west of the city of Ventura. to market. Conservationists said that omission in the proposal could unravel the plan, designed to help in the transition from a cattle ranch to an ecological showplace when the ranchers' lease expires in 2011. ``The Park Service has 15 years left on its lease with the ranchers to provide for an orderly return of the island to its more natural state,'' said Brian Huse of the private National Parks This is a list of national parks ordered by nation. Africa
``It is in the public's interest for the Park Service to work with the ranchers in a phased reduction of the herd and institute a systematic control of the noxious weeds,'' said Huse. Tim Setnicka, acting park superintendent, said he fears creation of an ``environmental holocaust'' similar to the one on neighboring Santa Cruz Island San·ta Cruz Island An island off southern California in the northern Santa Barbara Islands. when a huge flock of sheep was recently eradicated. Wild fennel and other exotic weeds have overrun Santa Cruz Island's native vegetation because they no longer are kept in check by the grazing sheep, he said. ``How do you phase out the ranching and phase in weed removal?'' asked Setnicka. Russ Vail, one of the principal ranchers on the 84-square-mile island, declined to comment on the proposal until he had a chance to review the proposals. The Park Service bought the cattle-ranching land on the island from the Vail & Vickers Co. in 1986 for $30 million with the condition that the company be allowed to ranch for 25 more years. The environmental proposal released Monday was begun when the state Water Resources Control Board ordered the Park Service to reduce the cattle's impact on streams and other habitat for native plants. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service increased the pressure last summer by proposing that 16 rare plants found in the Channel Islands be added to the nation's list of endangered species endangered species, any plant or animal species whose ability to survive and reproduce has been jeopardized by human activities. In 1999 the U.S. government, in accordance with the U.S. . Ten of those species are found on Santa Rosa Island. The Park Service proposes removing the herd of 600 mule deer mule deer Large-eared deer (Odocoileus hemionus) of western North America that lives alone or in small groups at high altitudes in summer and lower altitudes in winter. Mule deer stand 3–3. within three years, reducing the elk herd from 1,100 to 450 within three years and closing a sensitive pasture, representing about 7 percent of Santa Rosa Island's acreage, to cattle and to the small herd of horses on the island. The proposal also calls for fencing off nine separate stream beds, with enclosures ranging from 20 to 80 acres, and replanting native vegetation. |
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