After Controversial Helicopter Idea, Catalina Conservancy Pivoting To Ground Hunters To Eradicate Deer

The back and forth of how to eliminate Catalina Island’s invasive deer has seen the organization that has pursued utilizing helicopters to remove them has pivoted back toward a ground strategy. Here’s the latest from CBS News:

“Though most effective, we removed this method based on community feedback and shifted to ground-based professionals,” Catalina Island Conservancy wrote on its website.

According to the conservancy, the invasive mule deer were brought to the island roughly a 100 years ago. They claim the deer heighten fire danger by grazing on the native plant life, which allows highly flammable grass to spread through the island.  

“This dry, fast-burning fuel leads to hotter, more frequent and destructive fires, which in turn allow even more invasives to take hold,” the conservancy wrote. “This self-reinforcing pattern is known as a positive feedback loop, and the longer it continues, the harder it becomes to stop.??”

Los Angeles Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose district includes Catalina, is still against this revised plan to eradicate deer on the island, as she explained in a letter to Charlton Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Hahn’s letter read, in part:

“These animals have been part of Catalina’s landscape for nearly a century, and the Conservancy should be attempting every possible alternative before resorting to their eradication. Options like expanded hunting seasons, relocation, or sterilization have not been fully pursued, and I believe those deserve real investment and consideration.”