Guest Essay by Kip Hansen — 7 December 2023
♫ Twenty-six miles across the sea
Santa Catalina is a-waitin’ for me
Santa Catalina, the island of romance ♫
— The Four Preps Credit: Bruce Belland, Glenn Larson
Santa Catalina Island sits about 26 miles (~40 km) off the coast of Southern California. It has been inhabited by humans, off and on, for at least several thousand years – first by Native American tribes, then Spanish, Mexican and North Americans of European descent. Ownership has change hands several times: first entirely owned by James Lick in the 1860s, who sold it to the Banning Brothers [who] “began developing the island into a resort destination, building hotels, attractions, and roads into the island’s rugged interior.” But after a devastating fire in Avalon, the island’s main city, the Bannings, facing financial hardships, had to sell the island to chewing gum entrepreneur William Wrigley Jr. in 1919. [ wiki ]
“Wrigley played an instrumental role in the development of Santa Catalina Island, California, off the shore of Long Beach, California. He bought a controlling interest in the Santa Catalina Island Company in 1919 and with the company received the island. Wrigley improved the island with public utilities, new steamships, a hotel, the Casino building, and extensive plantings of trees, shrubs, and flowers. He also sought to create an enterprise that would help employ local residents. By making use of clay and minerals found on the island at a beach near Avalon, in 1927 William Wrigley Jr. created the Pebbly Beach quarry and tile plant. Along with creating jobs for Avalon residents, the plant also supplied material for Wrigley’s numerous building projects on the island.[4] After building the Avalon Casino in 1929, the Catalina Clay Products Tile and Pottery Plant began producing glazed tiles, dinnerware and other household items such as bookends.” [ wiki ]
In 1972, William Wrigley’s son, Phillip, created the Catalina Island Conservancy and donated all the family ownership to it. Today, the conservancy owns 88% of the land on the island.
Oh, and what does Catalina Island need saving from? Invasive species, or so they say.
“The Plan to Save a California Island? Shoot All of the Deer.”
“For decades, nonnative animals have ravaged the rare habitat on Catalina. The proposed solution has infuriated local residents and animal lovers.” “But the habitat is suffering because much of the native flora has been ravaged by animals shipped here over the past century for ranching, hunting and filming movies.” [ NY Times ]
You see, the people that owned the island thought that they had a better plan for the island than the way they found it. This goes back all the way to the first Native American hunters and fishermen that occupied the island, right up through the ownership of the Wrigleys.
So, the Catalina Island Conservancy, in order to conserve the habitat has decreed that all the island’s non-native mule deer are to be shot and killed, from aircraft if necessary. The Conservancy has been shipping excess bison off the island for decades (originally a tiny herd that was brought in for a Western film) but has now confined the herd of about 90 bison to a restricted part of the island and is using contraception injections to reduce reproduction.
Ah, but all those deer? Catalina Island is has a Mediterranean climate – dry, hot, dusty and thin soil over rock. There are simply too many deer for the environment to cope with – they eat everything that will fit in their mouths, one bite at a time. Being deer, they cannot tell the difference between rare and endangered species and all the rest.
The Conservancy has “…Previously, …killed some 8,000 goats (originally brought by Spanish missionaries in the 1820s) and 12,000 pigs (brought for sport hunting a century later). Those animals, too, devoured precious plants and caused erosion. “
In this photo we can see a few of the 90 or so bison on the island – they are unfortunately inbred – but who would support killing bison? You can see that they are eating everything right down to the nub. The view is one of over-grazed land. The estimated 1,000 non-native mule deer do the same and worse, consuming shrub, trees and everything.
The satellite photo below shows the rugged steep slopes of Catalina Island. Avalon is the tiny little crescent shaped bay on the upper side (east side) of the lower end of the island, that looks like a mouse took a bite out of it.
Can you guess what the response of the residents of Avalon and other smaller communities on the island has been? ”Stop the Slaughter of Mule Deer on Catalina Island”.
Of course, we must remember, “Though islanders are OK with locals hunting the deer, many find massacring all of them out of step with peaceful Catalina. Avalon is by any definition quaint, just one square mile stretching along a cove bobbing with boats, run by locals who grew up together. It is served by a single grocery store and filled with golf carts because of a tight restriction on new cars.” [ NY Times ]
To be honest, I do not remember reading of massive protests on Catalina (well, as massive as a protest can be with a total population of about 4,000, spread around the island) when it was feral goats and wild pigs being eliminated.
But the deer are “so cute” — they show no fear of people. Ask the residents of Ashland, Oregon what it means to let the deer acclimate to their suburban setting. In Ashland, people have to put deer fencing (8 feet high) around their yards if they wish to save their landscape plantings and accompany their dogs into their own backyards to protect them from overly aggressive deer.
The people of Catalina should not be surprised, eliminating invasive species from California’s Channel Islands (of which, Catalina is one) has been a long and is a still-ongoing process. After a suitable number had been relocated to animal refuges around the country, the last of the of San Clemente goats (descended from Catalina’s goats) were eliminated (shot) finally in 1991 after a court battle between the U.S. Navy (which owns the island) and the Fund for Animals.
All these island environments share the commonality of being isolated from larger, more diverse environments, like mainlands, and that isolation leads to specialization and semi-speciation (ref: Darwin and the Galapagos) . The San Clemente goat and even the Catalina bison (even after only <100 years) show evidence of this. Vegetation likewise becomes more distinct. Insects and rodents fill specific niches.
Certainly, the Conservancy is correct, unrestricted grazing by an increasing large population of deer has and will damage the fragile soils and limited vegetation of the island.
Bottom Line:
It is unlikely that the island residents and animal rights crowd will prevail in this fight. The Catalina Island Conservancy will go ahead with their decree to eliminate the deer from Santa Catalina.
The fight is bound to go on for some time, as many of the deer live inside the city limits of Avalon where have found better grazing on the lawns and landscapes of the homes there. The Conservancy does not control that area.
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Author’s Comment:
Neither science-writ-large, nor the Catalina Island Conservancy, really has much of an idea what the overall ecology/environment of Santa Catalina Island looked like before the arrival of man. Even the primitive Native Americans will have altered the native ecology to suit themselves and brought mainland species to the islands which will then have become “native” by the time the Conservancy or even early biologists show up in the late 1800s. This is true of many conservation efforts that attempt to restore various historical habitats. The best they can do is to eliminate what they think are the worst of the invasive species and then hope for the best – hope that over time, the island will magically revert to some approximation of its original state.
I wish them “Good Luck with that.”
Disclosure: Santa Catalina Island means something personal to me. I spent the first 21 years of my life within sight of California’s Channel Islands. While surfing up and down the Los Angeles shoreline from the Ventura County line, down through Malibu all the way south to San Clemente and later “watching the submarine races” from the bluffs above the beach while attending University of California Santa Barbara. My family spent a week in a lovely little cottage on Santa Catalina, in Avalon, when I was maybe 10 or so. My mother’s ashes were, by her request, consigned to the sea between LA and Santa Catalina from a small airplane piloted by my father. Ancient history really, but more than nothing.
Thanks for reading.
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Hmmmm . . . go back far enough and you will find a time when Catalina Island had no human inhabitants.
So, as regards eliminating non-native species on the island . . .
ToldYouSo ==> You do know that there are groups who consider humans to be the most destructive invasive species of all time. I have been in natural history museums with have dioramas on this theme suggesting that mankind should be eliminated (at least from “here”).
I used to think that- no longer. We have a place in the Universe- and we’ll spread out eventually. Maybe the UFOs will help us. 🙂
Yes, and I do believe that CAGW alarmists are near the top of such groups.
Is there a “right or wrong” solution to this? Are animals deliberately introduced by man “invasive species”? Often it seems to be a matter of economics. No one seems upset that the king salmon introduced into Lake Superior are feasting on the lowly smelt because people pay to fish for them. Chinese ringneck pheasants transplanted to the Midwest are prized by hunters. On the other hand, the Mexican gray wolves re-introduced to New Mexico and Arizona upset the rurals. Feral hogs are a menace in much of Wisconsin. Perhaps the muleys on Catalina should be made a target for tourist-sportsmen and the Badger pigs, recommended to be shot on sight, could also be the impetus for a new outdoor recreation.
general ==> Catalina tried sport hunting but it just did not bring down the population levels– for wild pigs, goats, and deer. Part of the problem is that the island is rough country, lots of ravines and steep slopes. Even professional hunters had a really hard time getting the last few hundred of the pigs and goats.
The Conservancy wants to get rid of ALL (as in EVERY LAST ONE) of the deer, as they have with the pigs and goats. Results on other Channel Islands have been very positive when goats, pugs and deer have been totally removed.
wolves?
L. A. Homeless? Arizona and SoCal “undocumented migrants?” If we’re gonna go with predation, we oughta go big.
Yes, what is “native” and what is “invasive?” There was a time that Woolly Mammoths roamed on the island when sea level was much lower. I’m sure that Black Tail Deer similarly roamed the area, and were killed off, if not by the Indians, then by the early Europeans inhabiting the island.
The west coast of North America does not have much of a continental shelf. Catalina is a ridge sticking up out of deep water. It is 3000′ deep between Catalina Island and the mainland. Unlikely that anything got to the island from the mainland even during a glacial period.
How deep it is is irrelevant. The important consideration is how long an animal would have to swim and whether the sea conditions would have overwhelmed any trying it. It isn’t a question of probability. According to the National Park Service, “Fossil remains of both Columbian mammoths and the pygmy mammoths into which they evolved have been found on San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz Islands in Channel Islands National Park.”
It gets philosophical. Here in Wokeachusetts, our “leaders” in state government have decided and put into law that the state’s “fish and wildlife service” must focus on and work towards reviving species and forest conditions that were common when much of the farmland was being abandoned- with lots of early succesion forests, loaded with the wildlife species that were common then in those early succession ecosystems. That perspective is neither right nor wrong- it’s just what they decided- if you try to challenge it- it’s like challenging the “climate emergency” here. I’ve spent many years discussing/debating and arguing with state natural resource folks over policies.
50 some years ago I was assigned to a Destroyer and my first experiences at sea
were in that area going through UnRep’s. It’s a very enchanted place and I have
some precious memories. We left Pearl Harbor on this date headed to WesPac
and I was on the bridge listening to the harbor guide recite from memory his experiences
on that day of the attack…but more to the point of your article back in the sailing days ships
kept goats on board for a supply of fresh meat. And it was custom to leave some goats on islands
while sailing. This was done to ensure anyone who might get shipwrecked a food supply in
that event. This has led to many islands being denuded by the invasive goats. Australia
is a classic example. There were huge roundups and massive pits dug for the carcasses
after they were slaughtered. They later have gone to a management policy and now Aussie
goats are sold in a very good way.
This seems to be a case of presentism, taking the views of the present and applying them to actions or views of the past. It would seem logical to me that this is a classic case of mismanagement.
Mr Ed ==> New Zealand is on a huge eliminate the invasive species kick — feral dogs, cats, stoats, etc. Sheep however are their bread and butter and subject to careful management.
The problem with these particular animals – goats, pigs, deer — is that they are brought to areas without natural predators, thus keep increasing in numbers until all the food runs out. That food originally feed the non-introduced species.
Note that “restoring the Channel Islands to Edenic states” is a beloved topic for environmentalists in California — there is no stopping them.
hmmm… I thought Adam and Eve were in Eden! 🙂
Captain Cook left pigs. In NZ they are referred to as Captain Cookers.
Are you sure that the Maori didn’t bring pigs with them to the “Long Cloud?”
Fran ==> Aren’t they trying to hunt them out now?
This does seem to be management by labeling. “Invasive species” bad, “ Native Species” good. Hunting the mule deer down to a reasonable level is too simple.
Tom ==> As there is no “natural state” population of mule deer on Catalina, that “reasonable level”, for the restorationists, is ZERO.
The Conservancy tried it with bison — kept culling the bison by shipping them to other locations — but these bison are not highly valued, their DNA contain too much cow and they are too inbred to be wanted elsewhere. But they just kept breeding and overrunning the landscape. No they have a reasonable number of about 90, have brought in some new blood, and use contraception to keep the herd intact.
But the deer can’t be controlled like that.
Remember, they have already slaughtered 8,000 goats and 12,000 pigs what’s another 1,000 deer?
You can get some awfully good ribeye from Bison. Better if they are grain fed before slaughter, too. Even mixed cow/Bison makes a pretty tastey burger.
“Even mixed cow/Bison makes a pretty tastey burger.”
In my area, they call that a Beefalo! Less fat than a pure cow, but still mighty tasty.
Are we really now in such a dark age that NOBODY can see what will happen if they do cull the bambi and the bison?
It is because the grasses and vegatations will have adapted (as best they can) to the relentless grazing and when the grazing critters vanish, there will be explosive & unconstrained growth of that vegatation.
Peta ==> And if the grass is allowed to grow unchecked, and the brush, and all those other weeds, then the soil will quit being washed into the sea and the sea creatures that need mud will suffer….
Until the Big Fire that exposes the bare soil!
After which the relentless rain will wash to exposed soil…
Perhaps savanna type forests will come back, no?
Just how much do you imagine plants and grasses can do in 100 years?
Kip,
One of the last years of my stint in Commiefornia before I escaped to the badlands of New Mexico I spent in Orange County. I fondly remember morning walks for coffee out on Balboa Island, and bike rides around the Newport Back Bay or out to Balboa Peninsula via the ferry. Sadly, I never took the time to visit Santa Catalina.
The high desert Southwest where I now live is a sparsely populated and fairly poor region. But 5 or 6 months out of the year a steady flow of people and money come up to our communities as hunters, both local and out-of-state, try to bag one of our plentiful elk, antelope and deer. I would think that the Santa Catalina Conservancy could generate quite a bit of income for the residents by offering hunts for both the mulies and the bison. That would help deal with the obvious overgrazing, and could be a source of healthy, grass fed meat for the locals if state laws allow. That would be a win-win for the locals, so I imagine that the wackos in Sacramento would be agin it!
abolition man ==> Tried allowing hunters to bag the deer, but the island is pretty tough hunting. Didn’t reduce the numbers far enough.
I doubt whether they could get away with allowing hunting of bison….beside, they have them on “the pill”.
Kip. I vaguely recall that there was an attempt back in the 1960s or 1970s to at least thin the mule deer population on Catalina. The idea was to catch the deer and cart them back to the mainland to be released. More practical back then than now as back then there were a pair of good sized steamers that made daily trips to the island. Lots of room for a few deer.
As I recall, the effort made the papers because it turns out that a mule deer can jump over a 14 foot fence if they don’t like things where they are. They apparently did not like their holding area all that much.
don k ==> You can’t keep a good mule deer down — and they breed like rabbits.
About 30-35 years ago where I live in Central Ohio, the Metro Parks of Columbus were overrun with deer. A plan was devised by wildlife experts to set up feeding stations where, at night after the park had closed, sharpshooters would cull the herd and then the meat would be inspected and donated to local food banks.
The PeTA and animal rights types got wind of it and protested vigorously. They had a number of alternatives to killing the deer. Trap and transport them, shoot them with birth control darts, etc.
The experts warned the original plan was the best. But Columbus caved.
The deer were to be trapped and transported to some kind of farm or refuge willing to accept them.
I think they all (maybe a few made it?) died traumatized and in terror during the process.
The original plan was more humane for the deer and people in need would have fed.
Hunting IQ of hunters >>>>>>> Hunting IQ of city dweller politicians.
Yes, it would be exceedingly difficult to cull ALL of the deer in that rough terrain.
It is much smarter to put up feed stations and have actual hunters in a blind cull the deer, rather than stalk them.
They could even set up water stations during a drought! My farm is in an extended drought and the creek even went dry. I deepened a dry groundwater pond by 8′, and got it 5′ below the groundwater table. My camera quickly showed a line of deer going to the new pond.
But I am just a hick from the Central Plains, not someone smart like Gavin Newsom!
P.S. PETA people may be even dumber. I have seen old and/or injured deer that are obviously starving to death. I don’t know how anyone that has observed that level of misery can believe that is preferrable to a clean shot from a high-power rifle.
pillageidiot ==> On Catalina, the deer are happy to bumble about and eat everything — don’t know if they can be lured to feeding stations or not.
The professional hunters will undoubtedly use all the techniques they find successful.
Gentle correction. 8 foot fence, not 14. Same as for farm raised elk in Wisconsin. And for Wisconsin buffalo (we have nearby herds) it is 5 foot BUT with a BIG difference. All steel reinforced concrete pots cemented at least three feet into the ground. A buffalo puts its head agains an ordinary fence, and just keeps on going.White tails can do a 5 foot fence, cause they do that all the time on my Wisconsin dairy farm.
Dairy Cows need 4 foot three strand barbed. But we also had several horses for over a decade, so all of the pastures they used were 5 feet four strand, the top strand being barbless smooth so they would not injure their necks trying to reach the grass on the other side. I ran all of those 5 foot four strand fence lines myself.
Three horse pastures: two summer (2/10 acres), one big winter, total about 45 acres for the horses. Of course, we fed them every day scoops of morning supplemental horse feed (oats, molasses, vitamins and minerals, bought a ton at a time in 8o# feed sacks from our local feed mill, special recipe from our farrier) plus alfalfa ad litem in both the summer/winter shelter sheds. (The winter pasture had an electrically heated water richie adjacent to the shelter, the summer pastures had just the one acre/8 foot deep stock pond behind its dam.)
Memories of a sometimes farmer.
Rud ==> Quite right, fencing 8 ft tall will deter mule deer — and it need not be field fence all the way up — six feet to field fence (wire rectangles) will hold the deer off your bushes, and three more wires horizontal 8-10 inches apart prevents them jumping the 6 foot fencing.
We bought (temporary) wire rectangle fencing(4 foot) for our calves. Spooled it up and stored when not really needed. Calves had not yet learned about barbed wire, and their heads were so small their heads could penetrate a regular 4 foot three wire and injure themselves.
Of course if they were castrated males we decided year by year on price whether to sell them to specialized veal farms in the area that had all the needed special stuff, or just raise them as steers to market weight at about 2.5-3 years.
And, in Wisconsin winters, each new calf gets its own special plastic calf ‘dog house’ with dry bedding for warmth when real young. And they are all also hand fed calf formula from a big bottle, since Mom is already being milked.
That is what a dairy farm is about.
Rud — 8 foot fencing is recommended for whitetail deer. Although they can jump higher if motivated and there’s room for a running start. Mule deer can make 15 feet with a running start. Reference: https://worlddeer.org/how-high-can-a-deer-jump/ Apparently the Catalina island deer really did not like their holding area.
Caveat: All this was long ago — 1965 give or take a decade — and I couldn’t find anything on the Internet about early attempts to control the Island’s deer population so I couldn’t check my somewhat hazy memory of those days. Perhaps 14 feet is what they ended up with after starting with something a bit lower.
I rather doubt the jump of a 14′ fence. Our garden(s) have about a 9′ fence, and that protects.
I live within site of Catalina. Spent many a good time hiking and fishing around the island. Chased wild boars when I visited for a Boy Scout camp, luckily we never caught one 🙂 When non native species of anything are doing more harm than good to the local environment they should be eliminated.
mleskovarsocalrrcom ==> Agree — while I went to a lot of Boy Scout Camps, it was always the mountains — never made it to Catalina. They have marvelous scuba training there. In a few decades, we’ll know what Catalina looks like without so many deer eating everything.
Kip — typo in the song at the top of the head post. The ‘me’ on the second line is missing it’s ‘e’.
drh ==> Thanks mate — probably the result of an earlier editing error 🙂
The nature of Nature is to change.
Having said that, there’s nothing wrong with preserving small parts (National Parks, etc.) “as it was”, to a point.
There’s not way to return everything to “as it was” due to invasive species. (In North America, carp are not native. Other native fish occupied that niche. How would we eliminate them?)
Back to Catalina, if it would be worth eliminating the Mule Deer on this (relatively) small area to preserve what was? And not eliminate the rest of the invasive species?
That
That’s for the the citizens of Catalina to decide and pay for. (I’m sure donations would be accepted.)
Gunga Din ==> In fact, the Conservancy would be happy to accept your (and other’s) donation HERE.
One of my points is that we do not, and cannot, know the original state of Catalina or any other island or “small part” of the world. Alas,the arrow of time flows only one way and there is no going back, not even to have a quick look.
The citizens of Catalina, however, do not control the Catalina Island Conservancy — if they did,they could just take a vote.
Thanks. I don’t know all that’s involved with this issue for Catalina, the mule deer.
When I was 7, in the mid 60’s, or so, Dad took my two brothers and I to Dale Hollow Lake.
(The Dam that formed it was built in the early ’40s.)
He took us back a few times with a friend of his whose kids were our friends. Very little development along the shores other than marinas.
I remember we stopped at Boy scout Island next to Cactus Island. It had an abandoned Boy Scout camp on it.
We had lots of fun running around the empty, overgrown buildings throwing Inch and 1/2 firecrackers at each other.
I took my kids there years later. Boy Scout Island is now Trooper Island, clear cut with grass instead of trees. The Kentucky State Troopers run a camp there now. That’s not bad.
Cactus Island now has an out house and there are no more cactus. (I suspect visitors took too many souvenirs.)
What is now Dale Hollow Lake State Park and Marina was also was just overgrown trees.
The arrow of time, at times, seems to hit the wrong target.
This is a repeating occurrence in the Gulf Islands of SW BC. Do a search for ‘deer cull Sidney Island’ to see the present furor over a similar event; there are always groups of humans on both sides who are convinced they are right and everyone else is wrong, and that their view MUST prevail.
Len ==> You are right about that: Here and Here
Special place. We overnighted in Avalon Harbor while on a two day tuna fishing trip with my grandfather and his friend who owned the boat. Caught some mighty fine yellow fins.
Rud ==> The tuna out there is truly great — when I was a 20-year old we would get them right off the tuna boats before they reached their docks. We would dent a couple of the pretty females up on deck in bikinis to wave to the tuna fishers — they would repay by swinging a whole tuna or two up to the girls.
Good Bait, & cuddly.
On Mayne Is BC, a fallow deer farm closed and released the deer a few years ago. Unlike the native mule deer, their grazing leaves a scorched earth. Deer fences had to be raised to 8′ from 6. Every proposal to deal with the problem is met with votes against, mostly by city people who own vacation property.
Disappointed in the comments. So far no one has mentioned venison or how they liked to eat it…or that the venison could be used to feed the rich people who live on or visit the island.
Regards,
Bob
Bob ==> The old Avalon was pretty much a middle class destination — though Hollywood stars would visit the rich mansions further from the sea.
The could, as you say, offer “free range all-organic venision”…. but they do have one to two thousand deer to get rid of.
2000 deer would be about 30 per square mile. FWIW, Vermont is estimated to have about 13 deer per square mile (130,000 deer, 10,000 square miles). Maybe 2000 deer really is too many for a rather arid and very rugged island.
Venison is often too gamey for the refined palate of rich people, not to mention tough! It is probably an acquired taste.
Not the venison we hunt off my Wisconsin dairy farm. They mostly eat alfalfa, corn, and soybeans just like my dairy cows. Except out in the fields. Not too tough if cooked carefully.
The coastal deer in California prefer to browse along the tree line, often eating bitter and aromatic herbs and shrubs.
Of course your Wisconsin deer aren’t tough if they lie around in the cornfields sleeping off their binge on edamame the night before! 🙂
Clyde,
I tend to agree, since I find elk far tastier than venison; but some of the best summer sausage I have every eaten was made with venison. The elk sausage made the same way was bland.
Our butcher up at the Wisconsin farm makes the best venison brats ever. Uses pork trimmings from Hormel in Minnesota to get the extra fat needed to be tender. Has his own smoke house for them. We take a small doe, the usual order is just ‘all venison brats’.
Try some pronghorn antelope. The best spaghetti I ever had was made with ground antelope.
I don’t really like venison, but I’d be willing to try again. The bison, however, should make good eatin’.
You would like my Wisconsin ‘dairy deer’.
Many people don’t like venison. I used to make hamburgers for BBQ using a mix of half commercial hamburger and half ground venison with some ground pork. It was generally well received.
Eating venison ==> I don’t hunt, but despite my attempts to gently discourage them when they were teens, two of the three boys are avid, expert hunters — taking deer, bear, and all the sport birds.
As “the parents” we are treated to all kinds of wild game meats — and in my experience, the overriding factor for taste and texture is how the meat is pre-treated and then cooked. My youngest son prepares bear meat that is tender and exquisite.
As my son explains — we are not Mountain Men who just shoot things, cut off a chunk of it, and hold it over the fire with a stick. It takes the skills of a decent Chef to properly prepare and cook wild game meats.
Bear is one of the few things I haven’t tried. I have read that it often tastes like what they have been eating — berries or salmon. The worst I have eaten was a raccoon that had been eating out of our garbage dump. The toughest was grey squirrel, despite being used in a stew and cooked with a pressure cooker.
Hi Kip,
I had a recipe for emu that might help.
Fill a rusty kero tin 3/4 full with muddy water. Toss in half a dozen fist-sized rocks and bring to the boil. Then toss in the emu.
When the rocks are tender the emu is close to medium-rare.
All the best,
Bill
Kip,
Not an important point, but are the deer actually Mule Deer, or coastal Black Tail Deer? Either way, I’d be surprised if the shooting campaign is successful, especially with a large number in the urban refuge where they can’t be shot.
Bow hunting would be possible, with or without using dogs. I believe it is Bambi loving anti-hunters who are the problem.
Back when I lived in Winnetka, IL, the local county park system had a severe deer problem. We had a dog that got stomped in our front yard.
The solution was simple. They closed the park (a bicycle trail from Chicago to the Arboretum, with many canoeable lagoons created by the CCC in the 1930’s, brought in skilled hunters using only rifled shotgun slugs (maximum range ~100 meters) with stands along the many bike trails (easy), and got rid of the deer. Repeat as necessary.
Clyde ==> The information from the press and Conservancy call them mule deer. There is a picture of some of them here.
Maybe you can identify them,,,,but it seems all the references use the term mule deer.
The Conservancy successfully eliminated thousands of goats and pigs — I bet they get the deer — which aren’t smart enough to stay within the city limits.
Kip, thanks for the link. Placer county extends east into the Sierra Nevada, so it probably was initially Mule Deer. However, Blacktail Deer can be found in the Mother Load around Placerville. Strange that they would import Mule Deer that are typically found at high elevations, instead of the Blacktail that are indigenous to the Coast Range.
Don’t sell the deer short on brains. They are at least as smart as gravel. Have you ever noticed that the on-ramps to the highways don’t have much in the way rocks where the tires go? The gravel keeps moving around until it gets someplace where it is no longer disturbed by the cars. Deer are like that too. On opening day of hunting season, they are disturbed by a horde of hunters on public land. Unaccustomed to such noisy things, the deer move away and keep moving until they find some place that isn’t disturbed by hunters — private land, parks, game sanctuaries and the like. They stay there until the hunters leave their usual haunts.
Too many deer? I can relate.
I saw at least a dozen deer last night at sundown. But they are native here and the Missouri Department of Conservation does a good job of managing the population through regulated hunting.
I recall a Conservation Agent speaking to my class when I was in second grade. Some of the kids spoke out against hunting. The agent explained that without hunting, the population would be too large to survive the winter and many animals would suffer before dying of starvation or freezing to death.
Nature is cruel. Hunting is, or can be, much more humane.
I lived in the Kansas City area for some time. Years ago, the Shawnee Mission Park was overrun with deer. Even dumb animals are smart enough to know where they are safe from hunting, you see. Every fall, there were dozens of deer/car collisions near the park. Homeowners also complained about the damage deer did to their gardens and trees.
The eventual solution was to close the park temporarily and hire some hunters to reduce the deer population. The meat was donated to the homeless.
BTW — We have white-tailed deer in Missouri. They breed rapidly.
When I bought my Wisconsin dairy farm over 4 decades ago, the deer hunting rule was one Buck per season. As the deer herd increased (and chronic wasting disease came along), it was changed to statewide ‘Earn a Buck’ by taking a doe first. When that didn’t solve the overpopulation problem in our region, in the Uplands it was changed again to ‘earn another tag if you earn a buck—and every such deer taken on such a tag earns another tag. When you have more venison than you need, the state takes anything you don’t want and processes it into venison brats for school lunch and prison food programs.
The WI November regular gun season is 9 days (Saturday before Thanksgiving to Sunday after). The usual state harvest in a decent weather year is about 700,000.
On my dairy farm, we usually only hunted Sat-Monday (because travel for Thanksgiving to Atlanta and Seattle and DC) with a gang comprising my father, two brothers, and our then male teenagers. Usually 7-8 total. Not infrequently we would have 7-8 deer in my farm pickup for processing by the first evening.
Rud,
It sounds as WI was once a wisely governed state! Too bad they didn’t make an impression on the fine folks running Commiefornia! Bless their little hearts!
Was. The deep blue Madison/Milwaukee populous has taken over. We erstwhile farmers and dedicated hunters are few and far between by comparison.
Rud ==> Gee, that’;s a lot of deer. the NY DEC says only 220,000 are taken here each year. My sons account for half a dozen, most legally tagged.
Rud, I spent a half-dozen years in the late-40s as a child in Northern Illinois, near the Wisconsin border (McHenry Co.). After school, my collie and I would roam in the woods and wetlands near our house. We never once jumped a deer in our travels. I would likewise play in the same areas in the Winter, and never once saw a hoof print in the snow.
About 30 years ago I went back to my old stomping grounds and while there visited a state park near Lake Zurich. I saw abundant hoof prints in the mud near the creek bottom of what had been a farm. The Whitetail prints were bigger than Mule Deer prints I have seen in California. Quite a change in 50 years!
Deer are the deadliest wild animal in the U.S.
There are 1.0-1.5 million auto accidents per year involving deer. Usually there are around 200 fatalities.
By contrast, the U.S. averages one shark attack death every two years.
Yet most people are NOT scared of deer and ARE scared of sharks.
I think the sharks and the global warming alarmists use the same PR firm to amp up the fear!
pillageidiot ==> Most rural New Yorkers have lost cars to deer collisions — I would not have car Upstate NY without full collision coverage for that reason. Driving at dusk is always dangerous here on account of the deer, who have a habit of leaping into the path of an oncoming car.
More Soylent Green! ==> Yes, we witnessed this madness in Ashland, OR where we stayed for a summer. The deer issue was so contentious it was like a civil war — our daughter who lived there advised us not to mention deer to any local, at all, under any circumstances. Too much of a Hot Button Topic.
This island, unless I’m mistaking it for another, often comes up in discussions in the UAP community. Lots of sightings in the area. Including the famous USS Nimitz incident in ’04. I spend the other half of my life in that community. 🙂
Then you will relish the short version of a story I related at my father’s Arlington full military honors funeral. (Horse drawn caison, 21 gun salute, flyover).
He was Air Force. While getting a double masters in meteorology and electronics (weather radar) in 1946 at UCLA he was also assigned to a then secret group operating near what is now Area 49. They were testing weather radar tracking of radiosondes (weather balloons) to get more knowledge about upper level wind speeds. Since weather radar were then not very good, they needed to tie several balloons together (using duct tape) to make a bigger target. My father’s then new and secret patent on a balsa wood/ aluminum foil radar reflector was made and attached to the string for additional early weather radar trackability.
One of those strings crashed and burned. The remains are what the Roswell rancher found and claimed was a UFO (UAP)—starting the Area 49 myth that culminated in the great movie Independence Day.
Dad got a copy of the finally (30 years later) unclassified official USAF ‘Roswell UFO incident ’ report before he died. We interred it with him at the Arlington Columbarium. Fitting closure. Then Senior Chaplain of USAF, who officiated, approved.
Rud ==> Now That’s a Story! Thanks for sharing.
Farmers have a lot of common sense. I’m surprised that a farmer/rancher would think that a “balsa wood/ aluminum foil radar reflector” is a UFO.
There’s a (subtle) difference between farmers and ranchers. Both tend to have a lot of common sense, though, true.
That doesn’t mean that they won’t take an opportunity to get a little bit of their tax money back out of the Feds, though.
My family was part owners of a ranch in the Roswell area. Not anywhere close to the “UFO crash” ranch. But my mother never threw away anything that had to do with taxes. More than twenty years ago, I had the task of going through those papers (no fun at all). There was one curious bit among those – an annual payment from the Department of the Army, really hardly a rounding error, even – for “compensation for damaged range.” Turned out it was for the bombing target that they had erected in one of the pastures during WW2, that made around a dozen acres unsuitable for grazing.
(I wouldn’t be surprised if someone hasn’t posted that target as a conspiracy bit – it’s in the shape of a swastika, right in the middle of the New Mexico grasslands. It was still some forty feet high of dirt back in the 1980s, so it’s probably still quite visible if you know exactly where to look on Google Earth.)
Kip => Interesting and thought provoking as most of your articles are. Thanks again.
Australia and New Zealand seem to have had some successful island introduced-mammal elimination programs aimed at saving specific native species (e.g. wetas, tuatara, quokkas, numbats, turtle and seabird nesting sites etc.). You have to start with the rats, though, and because this is Australia the feral cats are next on the kill list, but goats and pigs all have to go too. There is even a Federal ‘Island Safe Havens’ project* that, when I am trying not to be cynical, gives me some hope.
But – not any hope for a restored pre-Cook ‘Garden of Eden’. Much of today’s ‘conservation’ movement seems to assume that there once were perfect ecosystems without the influence of sinful mankind (although aboriginal peoples are usually portrayed as without sin). Every plant and animal belongs in its assigned slot in these perfect gardens and must never change. I assume this comes out of a Garden of Eden mythos (or maybe the Garden of Eden story came out of a pre-existing human ethos).
As a responsible Australian ecologist, I used to hate all invasive species. It just seemed so obvious that our island continent needed to be protected from the invaders. Not until I lived in Alberta, Canada, for a while – and was amazed by its biological diversity – did I start to have qualms. Every single plant and animal you see in Alberta today (except a few tiny ones that survived in refugia) has invaded since the retreat of the glaciers in the last 10,000 years or so. The vast majority of Alberta’s ‘native’ flora and fauna were not native just a geological instant ago – but only the ones that have arrived since Europeans (e.g. coyotes) are treated as weeds, as if the natural movement of plants and animals stopped.
Anyway, I have been able to resolve this cognitive dissonance by stepping back and looking at the history of life. Every species must have once started out as a small, isolated population that then started invading other places. This is the natural order of things – and except for the fact that human technology has sped up the process of dispersal and environment disruption that is often coincident with successful dispersal, it is the way it should be. So, I do think we should be remediating some of our worst disruptions and I think that is a better use of tax dollars than wars and other boondoggles. Good luck to them on eliminating deer on Catalina Island.
*
https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/factsheet-island-safe-havens.pdf
macromite ==> The Alberta, Canada example is great….I’ll put that in my toolbox. Yes, obviously rats and cats and dogs and pigs on small islands have to go. I am fiendish about feral cats and domestic cats allowed to roam rural and semi-rural neighborhoods. (if it was strictly illegal, I’d shoot them on sight.)
Thanks for the link to the .pdf on Islands Safe Havens.
Kip => I’ll put in a plug for the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute too. Alberta actually spends millions every year trying to assess and monitor the biodiversity of the entire Province and has amassed an incredible data base:
https://abmi.ca/home.html
On Lake of the Woods – a huge lake on the Minnesota and Ontario border ( with a small chunk of Manitoba) – the walleye (a native species) fishery has enormous cultural and economic significance. Official plans, policies and regulations express this while simultaneously espousing the dangers of ‘exotics’. Except, of course, the exotic smallmouth and largemouth bass, prized by tournament anglers. So bass get a lot of regulatory protection, while walleye anglers are pummeled with ever tightening restrictions ( in Ontario waters). Bass are known to compete with walleye, but are getting a free pass owing to a small but vocal Cadre of professional fishers.
Wester ==> Not a fan of introduced sport fish either. Ecological foolishness for a few pro’s and the tourist trade.
As I wrote on a previous topic, what could possibly go wrong. The deer have been on Catalina for awhile now. How will things change when they are all removed? Will the island snap back to where it was before deer were introduced? Or might something unexpected happen?
More Soylent Green! ==> A good point — but the deer have only been there a hundred years or so, and there are description of the island pre-deer and pre-goat.
In these complex situation,one should always expect “something unexpected”.
There is evidence from other Channel Islands that removing goats, deer, burros, etc allows the islands to re-gain a lot of vegetation — then more small animals, then birds of prey return, etc.
The island of Santa Catalina was created when the sea level rose at the end of the Pleistocene, stranding local animals on a mountain top. Mammoth skeletons have been found there, probably some of the last survivors. Almost certainly there were Blacktail Deer, probably exterminated by the Indians or early Europeans. Without large game, the mountain lions were probably starved out.
Clyde
Looking at a map you’d think the separation of the Channel Islands from the mainland was caused by sea level rise. But in point of fact, there’s virtually no continental shelf off of Southern California and the channels between the islands and the mainland are pretty deep.
Pleistocene sea level rise is thought to have been about 120m=400ft more or less. I’m pretty sure the channels are deeper than that and fairly wide.
If anyone has ready access to marine charts of the area, check me on that.
The islands have probably always been islands. (Which is what the internet tells me) However, the width of the channels was certainly less than today’s 25 miles (40km). That should presumably increase the chances that a mammoth somehow swept out to sea could make it to the islands. It only takes two to start a resident population.
Or, one that is pregnant. (It helps if is isn’t a male. 🙂 )
I’d say that there is a continental shelf, albeit punctuated by deep basins:
Our estimates on sea level rise are based on the lowest level being extant long enough to establish significant strand lines. It would only take a herd of wandering mammoths somewhere between a few hours and a few days to travel 5-10 miles. So, it is possible that there was a transient low-water line that hasn’t left obvious physical evidence, yet nevertheless, allowed mammoths to get there without getting their heads wet. Also, an unstated assumption is that there has not been significant vertical tectonic movement that would have narrowed the gap since the start of the Pleistocene and the current bathymetry map is representative of what is was like a couple of million years ago.
Polar bears are known to swim hundreds of miles from shore. The smell of vegetation, maybe within site, could have been a strong motivator for mammoths that didn’t like the smell of tar pits.
All ==> There is a 3,000 feet deep channel between Catalina and the Palos Verde peninsula.
So there is no recent “sea level rise” isolating Catalina.
Vertical land movements are more likely.
My wife and I made trips to Catalina to run the annual 50 mile ultramarathon. We usually puttered about the next day to loosen up and enjoyed the restaurants for a couple guilt free (well earned) meals before loading up on the ferry for the trip back. I can tell you, it’s a hilly place.
One time I kind of ran into a buffalo – I came trotting around a corner and there “he” was. It was a little misty so I had a hard time judging size and distance. My impression was he was about the size of a Chevy Surburban. I waited for him to move away from the track. That’s my MO for moose too.
My pop was a crew member on the Pilgrim – a tall ship out of Dana Point Harbor. The ship was education outreach for youth, and they would sail through the Channel Islands up to Saint Barbara and back. That crew knew all of the island sailor dives. He was one of the engine men, keeping their old 3 cylinder diesel in ship shape shape. He did that into his late 80’s. He died in 2019, age 96. Sadly, the Pilgrim is no more, it sank at the pier during the weird start of covid restrictions when the ship couldn’t be checked by crew, Just a few weeks before the ship’s crew held Randle’s memorial on the Pilgrim.
In the period 2007 – 2012 I did a lot of work out on San Nicolas Island. This is a Navy owned island west of Catalina. It’s far enough out that you don’t see the mainland unless the air is unusually clear. That island had far less modern use and visitation than Catalina, and it’s kind of more pristine. Not that it doesn’t have its problems (feral cats). I used to ride around with the crusty chief biologist – she made sure I knew what I was doing to get to my instruments on remote spits of land. She’d usually turn me into a helper for some bit of work she needed done. So, I had some interesting interactions with the wildlife. I do put being charged by a 4000 pound elephant seal in the memorial category.
I did spend a few days on the FLIP, out by San Clemente Island. Strange stable platform in the middle of nowhere.
deweesoptical ==> Hey, great stories. Didn’t realize the Pilgrim had gone down — another victim of the madness of the Covid days. Has no effort beenmade to re-float her?
Hi Kip,
Well, no. It was just hauled away. There is now (or was?) a funding effort to build a replica – it’s considered less expensive in the long run then recovering and getting her seaworthy again, It was already tagged out by the Coast Guard as too decrepit for public sailing. At least according to the CG. But it was still being used for student sleep overs and it was a wonderful old ship to hang out on.
Pop mentioned the issue about it taking on water years before, it took a couple small pumps to keep ahead of it. I don’t know exactly what transpired during the lockdown, but that part of the harbor shut down hard. I think if a pump gave out it would be a matter of a week or so and it would settle enough to go down.
Randle retired in the late 90’s. My mom Edyth died then too. He was at loose ends and started working at the Marine Institute doing ground maintenance. He was a sharp dude and social, and he got on with the crew. He had worked on Mississippi river tugs in his youth and knew all about their diesel engine. So, in his advanced age he became part of the engine crew. He sailed with them for about 10 years, finally conceding that at 90 and practically blind, he had to give it up. He was highly respected by the crew and Institute management, his memorial was quite an affair.
I never got to sail on the brig Pilgrim, I lived too far away to help with work that would earn me a cruise. In hindsight I should have managed it. My younger daughter lived in the area for a few years and became a “before the mast” sailor – she is a rock climber, and it was nothing for her to go up and help with the sails. They needed her as they were always short of sailors willing to go up. I’m a climber too and I would have loved doing that. Me and my family did sail on the Spirt of Dana Point, a sloop rigged tall ship the Institue owned. That was impressive to me, but Mallory said it was a light experience compared to the Pilgrim.
We moved there in 1966, I was 12. I learned to surf at Doheny Beach. Catalina was usually visible, but I didn’t visit it till much much later. It was a magnet – I knew a couple fellow surfers that paddle their boards across! Occasionally, there would be a group swim across! My 15 year old cousin panicked his parents when he and his 8 foot dingy disappeared. The Coast Guard catch up to him the next day on his way back.
Oh, I’m Randy – apparently I signed in under my business email.
Randy ==> Paddling a surf board across to Catalina is huge and totally foolhardy. The swim. WOW. But it has been done.
In my hometown we have lots of wildlife, mostly deer. Night before last we had a family of raccoons in the backyard. They have visited us in the past. We have deer in our yard year round. On occasion we have Mountain Lions, not in my neighborhood though. Bears are frequent visitors to our town though not in my yard yet. People have seen them a couple blocks away though. We’ve had a couple Grizzlies but not in town like where I live, on the outskirts mostly. I am tolerant of these animals, they were here before us. I have never been threatened by any of them but I won’t tolerate threats from any of them either. I don’t care what the deer eat in my yard but then I don’t plant anything I am not prepared to lose to them.
Bob ==> Just wondering where you live — you don’t have to disclose. It is the combination of Mountain Lion and Bear that gets me.
We have bear (yes, in the yard sometimes) and bobcats (in the hills nearby) but not our state Dept of Environmental Protection denies, fervently, that we have mountain lion — though I have friends who have seen them.
Missoula.
Bob ==> Ah, yes, now I understand Mountain Lions and Bears.
Thanks.
“Neither science-writ-large, nor the Catalina Island Conservancy, really has much of an idea what the overall ecology/environment of Santa Catalina Island looked like before the arrival of man. “
Similar with Australian rangelands and our various vegetation management acts. Has lead to the description
“As pristine as a recycled virginity”.
And the cost of elimination might be uner-budgeted. In the 1980’s there was a national conference on the problem of feral goats in rangelnds. A speaker from New Zealand spoke of their finding with eliminating introduced species from off shore islands. The take home message was that eliminating the last 1% cost as much as the first 99%.
another Ian ==> That’s part of the problem. Catalina is a small island and the hunt should be fair straightforward. They have already had hunters eliminate (kill) 8,000 goats and 12,000 feral pigs.
They only need to get rid of <2,000 deer. Easy-peasy.
So, Santa Catalina Island people want to rid themselves of some deer. Well, by golly, there are a bunch of us in northeastern California who would gladly provide them with a gift of as many mountain lions as their hearts desire, because we got way more than we need. Rumor has it that a mountain lion will eat one deer per week. Problem solved. Just no returning those carnivores.
Chad ==> Don’t tell New York State — they’ll want to restore the mountain lions to kill the wolves they have already restore….
Kip,
Thanks for the interesting story. I’ve been to Catalina Island a few times (5-10 years ago was my last visit) and I honestly can say I’ve never heard of or even seen a Mule Deer there. I don’t recall the issue being mentioned in our local paper (the Press Enterprise) ever. I tend not to watch the local news so perhaps I’ve missed a story or two about it. The late Huell Howser visited the island a few times for some of his shows (California Gold, etc…) and I don’t recall him ever mentioning them either. I’ve seen the Bison a few times though near the airport.
Kevin ==> Like all “stories” you will only hear the ones that the media wants to tell you. Newspapers “enviro” section have to have stories to tell. The Catalina Deer is a small local story but is blown-out of proportion by coverage in the NY TImes — nobody in NY is protesting the killing of deer on an insignificant little island off the coast of LA.
“A total of 231,961 deer were harvested in 2022 hunting seasons across NYS”. A hundred-fold of the number to be killed on Catalina.
The Times did not compare the numbers to give the story balance.