[CINC] SB News-Press attacks again

[Catherine French]

I get the rant, Paul and you raise some great questions.

This weekend, I was witness to freshly removed antlers from the elk on Santa Rosa still dripping blood, about ten was my count. I understand people enjoy hunting, not my thing, but this is America and that's why it's  the best place to be. What is interesting, Paul, is how one-sided so much "reporting" is today. Somewhere between the NPS and the ranch families on SRI lies the real story and the real story is always based on one's own perspective.

I for one look forward to a day with no introduced species in our special places. Already the island natives are starting to recover from my naive point of view with fewer ungulates on the island. I have witnessed same on SCI with the necessary eradication of the pugs. The island is alive with plants I haven't seen before on the normal trails. And, the recovery of the island fox there is nearly miraculous. It gives me hope.

It is hard to imagine how it must feel to Vail/Vickers family at this moment in time, facing an end of an era that they have lived. Bittersweet these last few months as they slowly say goodby to their way of life and of there parents and grandparents. I wish them well.

Calm seas,

Catherine French

Writer, naturalist, mentor
805.570.0432
To own is to have; to share with friends, is to enjoy.
Sent from i love my iPad

On Oct 11, 2011, at 9:17 PM, paul jr petrich <ppetrich39 at me.com> wrote:

> Hello Hard working CINC Naturalists,
> Today the Santa Barbara news-Press's headline front page was "Santa Rosa Slaughter Called Ugly but Necessary". It included a photo of Elk skulls from 2002. The "investigative" reporter was Scott Steepleton. I can't give you a link as it cost money, that I choose not to spent on this. Seventy five cents is enough.
> 
> Scott parrots the twist the New-Press owner has presented in the past when sheep were removed from SCI, when rats were eliminated from Anacapa, and when pigs were eliminated from SCI, and even the moving of Golden Eagles from the CINP. But he steps up the propaganda skills with his use of verbal  creativity such as: "carcasses to rot after marksmen in helicopters conduct rapid-fire killings". 
> 
> Mr. Steepleton nowhere mentions the successes that followed the previous "slaughters and eradications," as they were then described by his newspaper. Nor does he even refer to the numbers of elk and deer that were annually hunted ( I guess not slaughtered ), nor how much each hunter had to pay to get their "trophies". He nowhere explains the efforts and failures by the Vickers to get the animals off of Santa Rosa prior to the 2011 deadline. He fails to explain how these animals would be "managed" in the future, if left on the island, as they were when it was done  for great profit. Nor does he explain how that would be done without closing parts of the island to the public, as he complains is being done right now! He also pulls up the name of Teddy Roosevelt as somehow supporting the transfer of the Roosevelt Elk to Santa Rosa from the Grand Canyon area. I guess he is unaware of Teddy Roosevelt's famous declaration that the Grand Canyon should not be distorted by human hands
> , as humankind could not improve in any way what was created by nature there!   Paul  
> _______________________________________________
> Channel_islands_naturalist_corps mailing list
> Channel_islands_naturalist_corps at rain.org
> http://www.rain.org/mailman/listinfo/channel_islands_naturalist_corps