‘Endangered’ Status for Plants Could Harm Island
* The proposed listing of 16 plants as endangered species on the Channel Islands and its effect on ranching operations on Santa Rosa Island could have disastrous consequences. We should know in advance, through careful research and controlled studies, what the impacts of proposed management changes would be.
I have visited Santa Rosa Island for nearly 40 years, and I see no evidence that things are degrading. Nor have I seen any scientific justification for the claim that the current ranching operation is responsible for the small populations of any of these plants, or that the Park Service is failing in its mandate to protect these resources.
The most significant ecological pressures on the island occurred in the mid-19th Century when as many as 100,000 sheep grazed there. Current management practices, largely unchanged for over 90 years, have resulted in an ecosystem that is stable to a very large degree. While populations of some of these plants may be small, they have survived more than 150 years of ranching, and pressures on them are certainly no greater now than at any time during the ranching era. The environmental groups involved are generating a crisis where none exists. This sort of misapplication of environmental regulations is the very reason for the national clamor to roll back such laws.
An excellent example of the dangers of acting without good long-term data took place on Santa Cruz Island a few years ago, when cattle were abruptly removed, presumably in hopes that the island would then be able to return itself to some pristine ideal. What actually happened was fennel, an exotic plant that had been controlled by grazing, took over vast areas of the island, choking out other plants, including natives.
A similar disaster could happen on Santa Rosa Island if current management practices are abruptly changed. Only careful study and a measured approach, not precipitous actions such as those being proposed, will avoid such errors in the future.
JOHN J. WOOLLEY
Ventura
