On the balmy last day of fall, three white-rumped mule deer skittered around a rocky mountainside, then ranged free across the upper reaches of Santa Rosa Island. Not far away on a brushy slope, two tiny foxes with reddish-brown chests lounged side by side like housedogs, passing their afternoon inside a large chain-link cage.
These inhabitants of Channel Islands National Park have vastly different origins. The mule deer are thriving descendants of animals brought to the island early in the last century to provide hunting for the owners and their guests. The 5-pound Santa Rosa Island foxes, once-plentiful natives of the island, now number only about 70 and are listed as a federal endangered species.
The fate of these two species and others, however, has been intertwined for two decades as the National Park Service has struggled to transform the remote island from a privately owned cattle ranch and hunting operation into a park that protects public access and unique natural, cultural and archeological resources.
Although the cattle were removed seven years ago, the former owners have been permitted to maintain commercial deer and elk hunting, which park officials say has been harmful to the island's plant and animal life and restricted the public.
This unusual use of a national park took a new twist this month when Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, proposed to make the island available for hunting by military personnel and disabled veterans and to preserve the game herds.
After an outcry from Democrats, environmentalists and others, Hunter withdrew his plan from a defense bill, vowing to pursue it next year.
The history of Santa Rosa Island since it was sold to the federal government in 1986 demonstrates how difficult it has been to simultaneously manage an island as a national park, a cattle ranch and a place where some animals are protected by federal law and others are shot for sport.
Nita Vail, a former state agriculture official whose family owned the ranch and must vacate it entirely by the end of 2011, said the government made a serious mistake by making the relatively inaccessible island part of a national park and phasing out the agriculture. "It is a tragic loss," she said. "This family cares deeply about the resources here. It was managed really well."
