Santa Catalina Island Conservancy

Thousands of wild goats that once roamed the rugged east end of Catalina Island have been hunted down and killed by helicopter-borne sharpshooters in a program to restore the natural flora and fauna of the popular resort. An undetermined number of goats remain, but officials say they too will be killed in the coming months as part of the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy's effort to restore the island to its natural state.

Could the rattlesnakes on Santa Catalina Island be a subspecies new to science? DNA studies underway on five specimens -- four females and a male -- at Loma Linda University's Department of Earth and Biological Sciences aim to determine if they are distinguishable from the Southern Pacific rattlesnakes found in Southern California. Naturalists have long suspected that the island's rattlesnakes behave differently, suggesting adaptations to evolving in isolation 22 miles from the Southern California coast.

A hunter was killed and three of his companions were injured when their pickup truck skidded off a dirt road on Santa Catalina Island and crashed down a 140-foot embankment. Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies said Billy Joe Maness, 46, of Lakewood was pronounced dead at the scene, which was in the Middle Ranch area of the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, near the Isthmus.

Paradise has a way of getting paved over, and that goes double for beachy idylls. These days it's a "Survivor" world. It's a Waikiki world. It's a Club Med world. But not yet, thank goodness, on Catalina, where you can still find Old California a mere 22 miles off the coast of Los Angeles. It remains a slower, less fabulous but more courteous place whose salty charms are being celebrated in "Santa Catalina: In All the World No Trip Like This" at the California Heritage Museum in Santa Monica.

Could the rattlesnakes on Santa Catalina Island be a subspecies new to science? DNA studies underway on five specimens -- four females and a male -- at Loma Linda University's Department of Earth and Biological Sciences aim to determine if they are distinguishable from the Southern Pacific rattlesnakes found in Southern California. Naturalists have long suspected that the island's rattlesnakes behave differently, suggesting adaptations to evolving in isolation 22 miles from the Southern California coast.

Fauna, the rare, blind, 13-year-old Santa Catalina Island fox whose travails have made her an Avalon celebrity, is returning home. Dr. Matt Wyatt on Thursday declared the five-pound fox recovered from an unusual and experimental form of laser surgery for her most recent malady, a cancerous tumor in her ear, and will escort her by boat back to Avalon on Saturday.

Five down, four to go. Backed by a helicopter, hunting dogs and extra hired hands, a Southern California cowboy on Friday managed to capture five of the last nine wild goats on Santa Catalina Island. Ralph Lausten was skunked earlier this month when he tried to catch the goats on behalf of the nonprofit Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, which owns 88% of the island and aims to restore it to a natural state, which means no goats.

Paradise has a way of getting paved over, and that goes double for beachy idylls. These days it's a "Survivor" world. It's a Waikiki world. It's a Club Med world. But not yet, thank goodness, on Catalina, where you can still find Old California a mere 22 miles off the coast of Los Angeles. It remains a slower, less fabulous but more courteous place whose salty charms are being celebrated in "Santa Catalina: In All the World No Trip Like This" at the California Heritage Museum in Santa Monica.

Doug Propst spent the day driving his Jeep up and down ridges and steep, rugged canyons through miles of back country in this nature sanctuary in the sea. "Sometimes I do this on horseback. I like that," said Propst, 59, president of the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, a lifelong cowboy at heart. He was checking the plants and animals, the roads, the reservoirs and ponds after the recent rains, "keeping an eye on how everything is doing. . . .

Presuming one can take the word of the British Medical Journal, a Los Angeles man hospitalized in London has finally learned the cause of the abdominal pain, backache, fever and other signs of infection that set in after he went out celebrating last New Year's Eve. Doctors found a swizzle stick in his small intestine. The patient was not identified. The Physician's Weekly newspaper, reporting on the journal article, called it "a stirring medical mystery."

Five down, four to go. Backed by a helicopter, hunting dogs and extra hired hands, a Southern California cowboy on Friday managed to capture five of the last nine wild goats on Santa Catalina Island. Ralph Lausten was skunked earlier this month when he tried to catch the goats on behalf of the nonprofit Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, which owns 88% of the island and aims to restore it to a natural state, which means no goats.

Fauna, the rare, blind, 13-year-old Santa Catalina Island fox whose travails have made her an Avalon celebrity, is returning home. Dr. Matt Wyatt on Thursday declared the five-pound fox recovered from an unusual and experimental form of laser surgery for her most recent malady, a cancerous tumor in her ear, and will escort her by boat back to Avalon on Saturday.

Thousands of wild goats that once roamed the rugged east end of Catalina Island have been hunted down and killed by helicopter-borne sharpshooters in a program to restore the natural flora and fauna of the popular resort. An undetermined number of goats remain, but officials say they too will be killed in the coming months as part of the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy's effort to restore the island to its natural state.

In the dry summer heat on Santa Catalina Island, wild buffalo roll in the dust and munch on clumps of grass. Spotted baby boars scurry along the edge of a trickling canyon stream, digging up roots from the soil. Goats meander on a hillside and feed on green seedling trees. To tourists rambling through the hills of the 65-square-mile nature preserve owned and managed by the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, these scenes might appear idyllic.

In the dry summer heat on Santa Catalina Island, wild buffalo roll in the dust and munch on clumps of grass. Spotted baby boar scurry along the edge of a trickling canyon stream, digging up roots under the soil. Goats meander on a hillside and feed on green tree seedlings. To tourists rambling through the hills of the 65-square-mile nature preserve, owned and managed by the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, these scenes might appear idyllic.

Presuming one can take the word of the British Medical Journal, a Los Angeles man hospitalized in London has finally learned the cause of the abdominal pain, backache, fever and other signs of infection that set in after he went out celebrating last New Year's Eve. Doctors found a swizzle stick in his small intestine. The patient was not identified. The Physician's Weekly newspaper, reporting on the journal article, called it "a stirring medical mystery."

In the dry summer heat on Santa Catalina Island, wild buffalo roll in the dust and munch on clumps of grass. Spotted baby boar scurry along the edge of a trickling canyon stream, digging up roots under the soil. Goats meander on a hillside and feed on green tree seedlings. To tourists rambling through the hills of the 65-square-mile nature preserve, owned and managed by the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, these scenes might appear idyllic.

In the dry summer heat on Santa Catalina Island, wild buffalo roll in the dust and munch on clumps of grass. Spotted baby boars scurry along the edge of a trickling canyon stream, digging up roots from the soil. Goats meander on a hillside and feed on green seedling trees. To tourists rambling through the hills of the 65-square-mile nature preserve owned and managed by the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, these scenes might appear idyllic.

A hunter was killed and three of his companions were injured when their pickup truck skidded off a dirt road on Santa Catalina Island and crashed down a 140-foot embankment. Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies said Billy Joe Maness, 46, of Lakewood was pronounced dead at the scene, which was in the Middle Ranch area of the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, near the Isthmus.

Doug Propst spent the day driving his Jeep up and down ridges and steep, rugged canyons through miles of back country in this nature sanctuary in the sea. "Sometimes I do this on horseback. I like that," said Propst, 59, president of the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, a lifelong cowboy at heart. He was checking the plants and animals, the roads, the reservoirs and ponds after the recent rains, "keeping an eye on how everything is doing. . . .