In July 2006, I flew to an island about 26 miles from the Southern California coastline to explore the feasibility of establishing an exclusive hunting program for veterans with disabilities at the behest of Duncan L. Hunter, then a Republican congressman from San Diego.
I’m not a hunter, but I accepted the invitation with good intentions. Yet, somehow, I became entangled in a messy melee involving politicians who vehemently despised each other, wildlife conservationists wanting to save a fox from extinction, a historic ranching company trying to preserve its big-game hunting business and the National Park Service (NPS), whose priority was to rebuild the island’s ecosystem.
Santa Rosa Island had been abandoned years earlier, but it had a complex ecological history deeply impacted by human activity.
For thousands of years, the Chumash people lived on the more-than 53,000-acre island while maintaining a balanced ecosystem. Matter of fact, the remains of “Arlington Springs Man” that date back over 13,000 years and are some of the oldest human remains found in North America were discovered on Santa Rosa Island.
But then, Spanish settlers arrived and screwed everything up. By the 1820s, the Chumash people had been removed from the island and forced to work in the Spanish Mission system while the island was repurposed as a ranch, which triggered a cascade of environmental degradation.
It started with the ranchers bringing sheep, cattle and pigs to the island. Then, in the 1920s, the ranchers began importing Roosevelt elk and Kaibab mule deer. Back then, ranchers wanted to see wildlife on their property, and there was a lot of money to be made in hosting big-game hunts. Unfortunately, all these non-native animals overgrazed the vegetation, damaged the habitat and altered food chains.
Things only got worse following World War II, when the military constructed the U.S. Naval Air Missile Test Center and Santa Rosa Island Air Force Station, which were staffed by hundreds of people. Furthermore, by the 1960s, corporations had dumped massive amounts of the pesticide called DDT directly into the ocean, killing fish, sea lions and other wildlife, including the iconic bald eagle that once thrived on the island.
With the bald eagles gone, golden eagles colonized the island while feasting on a smorgasbord of pigs and sheep, as well as small native mammals including the island fox. Sadly, the fox population plummeted by more than 90% and neared extinction.
Driven by conquest, profit and resource extraction, humans had severely damaged the island’s natural ecosystem, and by the 1980s, the island had reached a point where recovery seemed impossible.
However, by the mid-1980s, the military had closed its bases and the NPS purchased the island for $29.5 million. Efforts to restore it began almost immediately, but the path to restoration was controversial and complex.
The NPS undertook active restoration projects, including controlling invasive weeds, planting native species and implementing erosion control measures. The non-native animals, including the sheep, cattle and pigs, were removed using methods such as aerial hunts and trapping.
However, getting rid of the deer and elk was more challenging. When the NPS took over, a 25-year agreement allowed limited hunting to continue until 2011. The idea was to gradually phase out these remaining non-native species.
However, in December 2005, then-Rep. Hunter tried to insert a provision into a military appropriations bill to hand management of Santa Rosa Island from the NPS to the Department of Defense.
Hunter, an avid hunter himself, said he wanted to create a hunting program for the island’s non-native elk and deer.
The proposal drew widespread condemnation from environmentalists, park advocates and Democrats, who criticized it as a misuse of a national park and an attempt to overturn a legal settlement. Critics argued it would undermine the NPS ecological restoration efforts.
That’s when Hunter enlisted the help of the veteran community, and for reasons unbeknownst to me, I was recruited to be their representative. A few days later, I found myself in a tightly packed six-passenger bush plane that reeked of dead elk.
In addition to the pilot, I was joined by a ranger from NPS, a journalist from The Associated Press and a reporter from Fox News with his camera operator. After a brief aerial tour of the island, we landed on a dirt airstrip.
The pilot remained with the plane, while the rest of us got into the only pickup truck on the island. There were no engineered roads, so the park ranger guided us over bumpy terrain to a centuries-old Chumash mound of discarded seashells. The ranger gave us the island’s entire history, including the ranching and hunting controversies, as well as the rehabilitation of its ecosystem. Not surprisingly, he steered clear of the drama between Hunter and his political foes.
The ranger then took us to see the endangered Santa Rosa Island fox, but not in its natural habitat like a den or some hole in the ground. Instead, we were taken to something that looked like a large chicken coop. The fox was sleeping, so the visit was short. Apparently, it was participating in a breeding program and needed some well-deserved rest.
After about an hour on the island, we returned to the mainland for a conference call with Hunter and his staff.
After highlighting the importance of inclusion in outdoor recreation and the need for federal lands to accommodate the diverse needs of all Americans, including veterans with disabilities, I gave Hunter a less-than-glowing assessment.
I told him transporting veterans with disabilities and their wheelchairs to the island would be challenging. The terrain necessitated adapted all-terrain vehicles, and accessible lodging would need to be built. Without these accommodations, I was afraid any hunting trip to the island would inevitably result in a Lord of the Flies scenario.
It wasn’t long before our visit to the island reached media outlets and NPS’s opposition to the plan, arguing it contradicted national parks’ mission to preserve ecosystems in their natural state, was made known. Hunter’s legislation ultimately failed, and the NPS continued its efforts to remove non-native species. By 2011, all deer and elk were eradicated from the island.
The removal of invasive species allowed native plants and animals to recover. Erosion slowed, native grasses and shrubs returned, and populations of the island fox began to rebound. The fox population recovered so successfully that in 2016, it was removed from the endangered species list.
Santa Rosa Island today stands as a testament to both the damage humans can inflict on fragile ecosystems and the power of sustained conservation. Though the debate over its use highlighted tensions between recreation, politics and preservation, the ultimate decision to prioritize ecological integrity has given the island a chance to heal.
As always, please share your thoughts with me at al@pvamag.com.
