Santa Rosa Island

For the family that once owned Santa Rosa Island, it was part Zane Grey, part "Robinson Crusoe. " Generations of Vail cousins would arrive from the mainland and take refuge for months at a time. They would explore places with pirate-map names: Skull Gulch, Abalone Rocks, China Camp. They were city kids, but they rode with the island's cowboys and knew the island lore — stories about ghosts, about shipwrecks, about a mythical temptress named Rita who supposedly awaited new cowboys.

For the family that once owned Santa Rosa Island, it was part Zane Grey, part "Robinson Crusoe. " Generations of Vail cousins would arrive from the mainland and take refuge for months at a time. They would explore places with pirate-map names: Skull Gulch, Abalone Rocks, China Camp. They were city kids, but they rode with the island's cowboys and knew the island lore — stories about ghosts, about shipwrecks, about a mythical temptress named Rita who supposedly awaited new cowboys.

Recently, Channel Islands National Park has become concerned that a weed "explosion" will occur when livestock are removed from Santa Rosa Island. Many weed experts who have studied the island question this premise. Whether or not a weed "explosion" occurs, the fact is that weeds are on the island now, and some level of weed problems will continue, whether livestock are present or not. We agree that weed problems need to be addressed. However, the park's proposed management plan would do little to control weeds, now or in the future.

Stranded off the Santa Barbara coast, the illegal immigrants decided that being rescued was more important than reaching their destination undetected. So one used a cellphone to call 911 on Friday. Boats carrying officials from the U.S. Coast Guard and National Park Service set off to find them amid the rugged beauty of the eight Channel Islands. Two days later, authorities landed on Santa Cruz Island, where 15 famished, but otherwise healthy, Mexican immigrants awaited. "They were stranded and couldn't get to the mainland," Coast Guard Petty Officer 1 s t Class Adam Eggers said Monday.

Ventura County supervisors Tuesday roundly criticized a California congressman's attempt to designate Santa Rosa Island as a recreational hunting ground for the military and voted unanimously to oppose any future attempts to remove the island from the National Park Service. Although Rep.

A Los Alamitos fisherman and two crew members were rescued in the choppy waters off Santa Rosa Island last night after the hull of their fishing boat split and the vessel sank, the U.S. Coast Guard said today. Los Alamitos resident Joseph Luz, the skipper of the 54-foot San Pedro Boy, radioed for help at about 5:15 p.m. Monday after the boat began taking on water, Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Brenda Toledo said. Nobody was injured, Toledo said.

Imagine a lovely, rarely visited island where you can hike into dramatic canyons, through quiet pine groves and along beaches that are best described as pristine only because that's more than a cliche. It's fact. Several time zones away, you think? No, I'm talking about Santa Rosa Island, the second largest of the Channel Islands. It's a 25-minute flight from Camarillo Airport, 15 minutes from Santa Barbara Airport.

A Ventura County supervisor Wednesday asked his board colleagues to join him in opposing any future efforts to give the military special hunting grounds on Santa Rosa Island. Supervisor Steve Bennett said U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) likely would renew his attempts to turn the island into a hunting and recreation haven for military personnel. He said the Ventura County Board of Supervisors should go on record against such legislation.

Three people were rescued by a U. S. Coast Guard cutter late Sunday evening after their sailboat capsized in the ocean near Santa Rosa Island, authorities said. Coast Guard officials received a distress call from an unidentified trimaran that had capsized about 12 miles from the southwest tip of Santa Rosa Island at about 6:30 p.m., said Petty Officer Rick Pearson. A Coast Guard helicopter began searching for the capsized vessel immediately, locating the three stranded sailors about 9 p.m.

Once again, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) has proposed legislation to continue deer and elk hunting on Santa Rosa Island past the existing end date of 2011 (May 2). If this legislation passes, almost all of the island will be off limits to all but a few. The island was purchased with public tax dollars so it could be open to all of us. The continued presence of these nonnative animals on the Channel Islands puts rare and endangered endemic plants and animals at risk of extinction.

These are wonderful times to be an island fox. A decade ago, the house-cat-sized animals were scampering toward extinction, with only a few dozen surviving at spots scattered around Channel Islands National Park. Now they're practically poster mammals for species revival, numerous enough that government scientists no longer have to breed them in the safety of chain-link pens.

A proposal that would allow continued big-game hunting in Channel Islands National Park appears doomed, to the delight of park supporters and the dismay of its chief backer. The controversial plan by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine) was scuttled by a measure tucked into the half-trillion-dollar spending bill approved this week by the House of Representatives. The massive bill has yet to clear the Senate, but its approval there is expected.

The Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would repeal a new law allowing big-game hunts on Santa Rosa Island. The measure was added by California's Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, to a military construction spending bill being completed by the Senate during Congress' lame-duck session. It was approved by voice vote without debate. The Feinstein-Boxer measure would overturn a provision that was part of a defense funding bill signed by President Bush last month.

A controversial plan to turn an island in the Channel Islands National Park off the Southern California coast into a hunting reserve for veterans cleared an important hurdle Friday, as congressional leaders agreed to insert the item into a crucial defense bill. In a striking illustration of the power of a committee chairman, Rep.

The U.S. Senate passed a resolution Thursday opposing Rep. Duncan Hunter's plan to allow military veterans to hunt on Santa Rosa Island. Private hunts are allowed on the island but will end in 2011. Hunter (R-El Cajon), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, wants to keep deer and elk on the island. The National Park Service opposes the hunting plan. The resolution was sponsored by California's Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

Re "Island Hunting Plan Misses Target," Aug. 3 The proposal by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) for a military hunting preserve is a selfish land grab for hunters like himself who want a pristine and publicly isolated area for their personal hunts. His use of the emotionally charged issue of disabled American veterans is nothing more than camouflage to attain that goal. If he is truly sincere about helping disabled vets who want to hunt, then he should propose setting aside some of the thousands of acres of federal forest that are for sale and create a refuge with the proper facilities that could accommodate disabled veterans' needs.

A federally funded project to eradicate 2,000 pigs on Santa Rosa Island could be lost because a Montana land company is claiming National Park Service officials were unfair in their review of the contract bids. Bids for the project had not been awarded when the Montana company protested the way its bid to kill the pigs was being reviewed. Kate Faulkner, the chief of resources management for the Channel Islands National Park, said the agency had until Oct. 1 to award the $140,000 contract.

A controversial plan to establish a hunting haven for disabled veterans on rugged terrain in Channel Islands National Park has already taken flak from the National Park Service, congressional Democrats, environmentalists and local governments in coastal California. Now, disabled veterans have joined in, shooting down the proposal for Santa Rosa Island that Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has said he crafted for their benefit.

Powerful Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) has won the first battle in his push to provide special hunting privileges for military personnel and disabled veterans on an island off the Ventura County coast. But California's two senators -- among others -- have vowed to defeat the proposal, which they helped derail last year.