Fw: Poaching of Santa Rosa Elk, and deer... Deer elected representatives!

-From: JULIA DI SIENO <msladyjulia@hotmail.com>
To: info@maldonadoforcongress.com; Ed Hat news <ed@edhat.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2011 5:44 PM
Subject: FW: Poaching of Santa Rosa Elk, and deer... Deer elected representatives!

 

Deer ALL elected representatives,   As tax payers we count on our elected officials to protect and preserve our community. What is happening with the planted Roosevelt Elk, and mule deer is pure barbaric poaching!~ These non native ruminants will be shot by The White Buffalo Hunting Team from helicopters. The meat is to remain on the Island to rot and not be harvested. Who hired these GREAT WHITE Buffalo  Ted Nugent type poachers? Did you know that Santa Barbara counties deer season ended. This year deer season opened  August 14, 2011, lasting 44 days thru September 26th, 2011. ANY deer killings outside this time frame is considered poaching by the State Department of Fish & Game. Ariel hunts in Santa Barbara county are also illegal! THIS IS THE LAW!  

Inside Channel Islands National Park on Santa Rosa Island, 40 miles from the California coastline, there are about 1,100 elk and mule deer that have no idea their fate is being decided 2,700 miles away in Washington, D.C.California Congressman Duncan Hunter protected the island’s introduced Kaibab mule deer and Roosevelt’s elk in a provision in the 2007 Defense Authorization bill signed by President Bush last October. Then in May, Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, along with Congresswoman Lois Capps, all from California, launched simultaneous bills in the U.S. Senate and Congress to repeal the law and remove the elk and deer from the island. . The tug-of-war surrounding the Santa Rosa herds is nothing new on Capitol Hill. In 2005, Hunter, who has now retired to make a run at U.S. President in the 2008 election, unsuccessfully proposed a bill that would have transferred the island from the Park Service to the U.S. military, creating a military game reserve and training ground for drills. The next year, he tried to keep the herds in place for hunting by disabled veterans. In the 1920s, Vail and Vickers, a ranching company that owned the island for nearly a century, brought the elk and deer to the island. In 1986, taxpayers paid the Vail and Vickers Company approximately $30 million to acquire Santa Rosa Island and make it part of Channel Islands National Park, with a goal of restoring its native ecology and providing public access. When Vail and Vickers sold the island, the company negotiated a 25-year lease that allowed them to continue hunting operations until 2011. Everything seemed settled until Congressman Hunter introduced his new provision. “Duncan Hunter never contacted us,” Will Woolley, a Vail family member told the Associated Press. ”It makes me nervous. It’s not spelled out what our future would be.” But now that Hunter is fighting to keep the animals on the island, the Vail family is, too. Timothy Vail, one of three cousins that sold the island to the National Park Service, addressed a Senate Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee back in May. “We believe that after 80 years of occupancy, this is their [elk and deer] home,” Vail said. Park manager Russell Galipeau disagrees. He says the Park Service’s objective on Santa Rosa Island is to restore the natural processes of the island, and the non-native elk and deer are interfering. In the past, the Park Service has been consistent in dealing with animals it deems as pests. Throughout the five islands that make up the Channel Islands National Park, pigs, donkeys, sheep, rabbits and rats have been eradicated. The Park Service hired an outfitter—Multiple Use Managers—to participate in some of the eradication projects. Ironically, this is the same outfitter that still provides private guided hunts on Santa Rosa on behalf of Vail and Vickers. The owner of Multiple Use Managers, Gordon Long, says he would like to see the deer and elk remain on the island, and so would many of the park visitors he encounters in the field. “Where else are people going to see Roosevelt’s elk in southern California?” he says. However, Galipeau counters that visitors are there to see the island’s unique flora and fauna, which for species like the endangered island fox are found nowhere else in the world. In 1994, there were roughly 1,700 Santa Rosa Island fox. In 2000, fox numbers were down to 38, mainly because of predation by a new resident, the golden eagle. The eagles fed on feral pigs and then switched over to the fox after the Park Service eradicated pigs in the early 1990s. Now, fox numbers are slowly rebounding due to eagle relocation and captive fox breeding programs. For the time being, the fate of the elk and deer on Santa Rosa Island remains in limbo. In June, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to repeal Hunter’s provision, and that repeal is part of the 2008 Interior Department spending bill, which still needs votes from the full Senate and House. Feinstein said, “The goal of my legislation is simply to repeal this provision—no more and no less.”While they may disagree about the elk and deer, Vail and Vickers, Long and the Park Service have worked closely together coordinating private hunting and public visitation, and all parties agree they have worked well together in the past. Though somewhat insulated from dissension and controversy, the island is affected by mounting tensions in the political arena.“Our relationship has always been good,” park manager Galipeau says. “But, unfortunately, it has become difficult because of the legislation.”

  These animal were introduced to Santa Rosa Island over 80 years, used for canned hunting. Another blood sport that needs to be examined. Here are a few words from The Humane Society of the United States which i received today.  

Your note was forwarded to me for response – thanks so much for writing. The Humane Society of the United States is encouraged by the vision of the U.S Congress that the Channel Islands should be managed in a manner consistent with the mission of the National Park Service (NPS). However, we are saddened that the NPS's zeal to return the island to its native state will bring suffering and death to the non-native animals currently living in the park.

The resident elk and deer on the island are managed for the purpose of an ongoing trophy hunt by a private commercial business. Although a large island, the deer and elk have no opportunity to escape their pursuers. It is effectively a canned hunt. Our national park lands should be safe havens for animals, not privileged playgrounds for a small group of trophy hunters.

The HSUS strongly opposes the current trophy hunting operation inhabiting the island and supports a non-lethal management option for the future.

Clearly, this issue is complicated. The HSUS is committed to supporting the elimination of the trophy hunting operation while also supporting humane alternatives to a lethal eradication of Santa Rosa Island's non-native animals.

Best,

Casey

Casey Pheiffer
Director, Wildlife Abuse
cpheiffer@humanesociety.org
t 301.721.6407     f 301.721.6414

The Humane Society of the United States
2100 L Street NW Washington, DC 20037
humanesociety.org

   

  Because these animal were introduced, ariel slaughter is NOT the answer. Relocation, and birth control methods are an option. What is next our state wide wild turkeys introduced by Fish & Game?       In Monterey County, for example, the Breeding Bird Atlas project traced the local established population to an aggressive program of introductions by Calif. Fish & Game beginning in 1965; at least 361 turkeys were released in the 30 years since. Today they are well established through the oak savanna in the foothills of Monterey County and south into San Luis Obispo County. Other populations thrive in oak habitat in Sierran foothills along the east edge of the Central Valley, and in the Coast Ranges north of San Francisco from about Sonoma & Napa counties to Mendocino Co. [a map of current northern California range is in Fix & Bezener (2000).]

Largely because of the tradition that arose with the first CBRC checklist back in 1970, Wild Turkey has always been listed as a "non-native introduced species" in California. Yet the current 7th ed. A.O.U. Check-list notes that the Turkey has been "reintroduced widely through its former breeding range north of Mexico, and established locally north to southern British Columbia, Washington, Idaho..." [and various points east; emphasis mine]. The implication of this statement is that turkeys in California have been "re-introduced" into "former" range, and this point warrants consideration. Were Wild Turkeys ever native to California? Should we consider them to be "reintroduced natives" rather than "introduced non-natives?" I present evidence here that supports a non-traditional view of the Wild Turkey in California.   

Also hence the name of this blood thirsty group doing the ariel killings, White Buffalo Hunting. White buffalo are sacred to the Native Americans. What a disgraceful title.

The Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Nations (known collectively as the Sioux) were considered Miracle's primary spiritual guardians the white buffalo played a pivotal role in the fulfillment of their most revered prophecies. However, the white buffalos  place in the prophecies and beliefs of many tribes made them a highly sacred symbol to many of the American Indian Nations across the continent.  White Buffalo was seen by a vast number of people as a symbol of hope and renewal for humanity and for harmony between all peoples, all races, in our world today

  The federal court or to whomever gave this ruling should be removed from the bench!  

PLEASE call Lios Capps, to express your concerns, Julia J. Di Sieno Executive Director Animal Rescue Team, inc. 805 896-1859www.animalrescueteam.net   Take nothing but photographs. Leave nothing but footprints. Kill nothing but time.