Republican Revives Island Hunting PlanBy ERICA WERNER
The Associated Press
Monday, May 1, 2006; 8:30 PM
WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the House Armed Services committee is reviving a controversial
proposal to allow members of the military to hunt deer and elk on a national park island
off California. Opponents fear the plan could limit public access to Channel Islands National
Park and threaten native species.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., backed off his plan to allow military hunting on 53,000-acre
Santa Rosa Island after objections from senators last year. But a major defense bill his
committee will take up Wednesday may revive the proposal, according to bill language circulated
Monday.
Hunter's proposal would allow the hunting of nonnative elk and deer on Santa Rosa Island, 40 miles
off Santa Barbara, to continue indefinitely even though a court-ordered settlement calls for it
to end in 2011.
Hunter has argued that this would create a recreational opportunity for veterans and others, and
also prevent the "extermination" of the game. But the National Park Service, which purchased Santa
Rosa Island for $30 million from a local ranch family in 1986, says hunting restricts public access
and makes it harder to promote native species like the endangered island fox.