Cattle Battle Heats Up on Santa Rosa Island : Habitat: An environmental group says the National Park Service favors ranching over endangered wildlife. It may sue.

Environmentalists and National Park Service officials are holding last-minute negotiations to avoid a showdown in court over cattle ranching on Santa Rosa Island.

A Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group has threatened to sue the park service, alleging that the Channel Islands National Park, a chain of five islands off the Ventura County coastline, is failing to protect its natural resources.

The National Parks and Conservation Assn. contends that grazing by cattle, elk and deer on Santa Rosa Island is endangering several native plant species. In addition, the watchdog group contends that cattle are crushing the nests of the snowy plover, an endangered shorebird.

The association wants the cattle permanently removed from a pasture where the plovers nest, and wants livestock moved away from riparian areas to protect water quality and imperiled native plants.

At the very least, the group wants fences built around the sensitive areas to keep the animals out.

The association argues that the park service, which acquired Santa Rosa Island from private owners in 1986, can and should alter or even terminate the permit that allows the Vail & Vickers Co. to continue the ranching operation.

“The private land owner was provided $30 million in compensation for the island,” said Neil Levine, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Center in Santa Barbara, which represents the association. “Yet the park service is not managing Santa Rosa as a national park, but as a cattle ranch.

“If the park service shows no inclination to protect the land, we will have to seek remedy in the courts.”

But the park service is trying to arrive at a solution out of court, said Tim Setnicka, deputy superintendent of the Channel Islands National Park.

It has spent $10,000 to build an electric fence around snowy plover nesting areas in an attempt to keep cattle out.

So far, however, the cattle have been overrunning the fence and trampling the critical area for the birds. A new solar panel was installed over the weekend to increase the electric jolt the animals receive, a park service employee said.

The park service is also working with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on a management plan to protect entire ecosystems and prevent plants from becoming endangered, Setnicka said.

But Setnicka said the park cannot move animals to other parts of the island without first studying the impacts on those other areas. And as far as the ranching operation is concerned, he said, a deal is a deal.

“We’re making good-faith, honest offers to [buy land from] property owners,” he said. “But the attitudes toward ranching have changed. We’ve gone from ‘Please sell us your land and we’ll let you ranch for 25 years in peace,’ to ‘Let’s dog pile on the people on the ranch because they are villains.’ ”

The two sides have been trying to hash out an agreement to avoid a court battle. The most recent exchange came last week, when the park service notified the association in writing that it had built the fence and that it was working with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on the resource management plan.

The watchdog group is expected to decide this week whether to go forward with the lawsuit, Levine said.

At issue is whether the ranching operation should continue on Santa Rosa Island.

In 1986, the park service bought the island from the Vail & Vickers Co., which has ranched there for nearly 150 years. The sale included a provision for the right to continue ranching for up to 25 years at the discretion of the secretary of the interior.

But the legislation authorizing the sale also allows the secretary to terminate the ranching operation if it is determined to be incompatible with the administration of the park or with the preservation of its resources.

Levine cites that provision as the park service’s authority to alter the lease with the Vail & Vickers operation and immediately move the cattle out of the snowy plover habitat, and eventually remove the deer and elk as well.

The association and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which administers the Endangered Species Act, contend that such a move is necessary to protect rare and endangered species.

“The plover is listed as endangered; it’s in big trouble,” said Trudy Ingram, a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologist. “Anything the park service can do to assist that species is needed. But they have fought us every step of the way.”

But the park service contends it is managing the land appropriately. And, in any case, the ranching operation will end in 16 years, according to the existing conditional use permit, Setnicka said.

Furthermore, he said there is no clear indication that the ranching operation is harming species on Santa Rosa Island.

“We have no evidence that shows that the ongoing [ranching] management is contributing to the decline of the species out there,” Setnicka said. “That’s the big point of confusion.”

Setnicka points to a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service opinion which concluded that a combination of wind, weather and predators was responsible for up to 75% of losses of plover nests and young. The cattle practices, the opinion said, were directly responsible for only 5% of the losses.

But Ingram, who wrote most of the biological opinion, said that ranching may have other, less obvious impacts. Ravens, which feed on cattle carcasses, are among the main plover predators.

“They eat the eggs and they eat the chicks,” she said.

And while cattle and other livestock have been harming the birds by inadvertently stomping on their nests, Ingram said, the park service had not taken steps to keep the cattle away until June when the fence was built.

“The only reason that fence went up is because of the impending lawsuit,” Ingram said. “Unfortunately, it seems that they need to be forced into doing what they should be doing on their own: protecting the national resources.”