Judge rules 2,000 Catalina Island deer can be killed to save native plant species

Cull of animals that eat native shrubs, causing spread of fast-igniting grasses, to go ahead despite fierce opposition

Locals and tourists have long fawned over Catalina Island’s mule deer population. For nearly a century, the ungulates have roamed the land’s waterfronts and woodlands, so comfortable around humans that it is not uncommon to spot deer roaming downtown Avalon.

But that sight will soon disappear, after a judge this week paved the way for the island’s conservancy to kill nearly all the island’s 2,000 deer.

A non-profit controlling 88% of the island off the southern California coast has been trying for years to eliminate a non-native deer population. Experts statewide have expressed support for the Catalina Island Conservancy proposal, saying the deer’s consumption of a native shrub plant has led to a growth of an invasive grass species that ignites faster and spreads fire more easily.

The prospect of killing so many deer has sparked fierce – and emotional – opposition from the public, creating an unlikely coalition of animal activists and hunters that has tried to prevent the culling in court. An online petition against the move has garnered more than 32,000 signatures.

Los Angeles county supervisor Janice Hahn, an outspoken critic of the deer’s killing, asked California governor Gavin Newsom to intervene earlier this week. But the plea was to no avail, and on Tuesday a county judge tentatively denied a preliminary injunction filed by opponents.

The conservancy said it would now move forward with a five-year plan to eliminate the island’s deer population, according to director of communications Pepe Barton, with an estimated 200 to be hunted with rifles over the next two months. Formally known as Santa Catalina Island, it is the last leg of the Channel Islands national park to remove non-native deer species.

“We understand the gravity of the situation and the responsibility, and it’s a noble sacrifice on the part of the deer that didn’t ask for this,” Barton said. “But this is a necessary step to protect the island, the native plants and animals that are only found here, as well as the residents and livelihoods that depend on Catalina.”

Hunters first introduced mule deer to Catalina for sport about a century ago. What began as a population of a few quickly grew to a few thousand, and save for minor dips in drought seasons, the island’s deer population has not dwindled.

The animals developed an appetite for shrubs native to the island. That presented a unique ecological problem for the island, according to California State University, Bakersfield professor and plant biologist Anna L Jacobsen, who studied the island deer’s relationship with its vegetation after its last major fires in 2006 and 2007.

Jacobsen said when non-native deer eat shrubs already threatened by climate change, the native plants cannot regenerate or recover fast enough, and can become locally extinct.