Days Numbered for Island’s Sheep Herd

The countdown has begun on a herd of 2,500 feral sheep that roam the east end of Santa Cruz Island as the National Park Service prepares to shut down a lucrative hunting operation.

Now stalked by bow-and-arrow hunters every weekend, all of the woolly animals remaining on the island after Feb. 10 could be mowed down by government-hired sharpshooters or rounded up and escorted to the mainland.

Long concerned about excessive grazing, park officials want the sheep removed from the island beginning in February when the federal government seizes the property owned by Oxnard attorney Francis Gherini.

Ordered by an act of Congress, the seizure will complete the Channel Islands National Park. Rangers want to turn Santa Cruz Island, located about 20 miles off the Ventura coast, into a popular hiking and camping destination and make it the hub of the five-island national park.

The law to take Gherini’s property was expected to finally resolve the government’s awkward relationship as co-owner of the 6,264-acre ranch with the Oxnard octogenarian, the lone holdout of the family that owned the island ranch for 110 years.

But the wrangling continues as Gherini and government officials argue over the fair market value of the property--and, over the fate of the sheep.

Jaret Owens, who is Gherini’s hunting concessionaire, said he has begged park officials to extend his permit a few extra months so he can thin the herd with the two dozen hunters who pay $550 per weekend to stalk the barnyard animals gone wild.

Although his scheduled trips with archers and rifle hunters are “booked solid,” Owens said he does not have enough time to finish off the sheep. He now limits hunters to five kills apiece.

“I could do it,” he said, “if I shot them and let them lay and wasted the meat. But that’s against my morals.”

Tim Setnicka, acting superintendent of the Channel Islands National Park, said he sees no reason to extend the overgrazing problem that has denuded the island, accelerated erosion and threatened the survival of native plants that park officials are sworn to protect.

“Jaret is free to step up his hunting operations between now and Feb. 10,” Setnicka said. “He could finish off the herd at no cost to the government. He’d be a hero.”

But Setnicka said Owens is merely trying to make a few more dollars before he shuts down his 12-year hunting operation.

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Park officials have not determined whether they will hire professional hunters to eradicate the sheep, as they did with wild pigs rooting around Santa Rosa Island six years ago.

If they resort to that, Owens said, he should be the one to land the contract--given his experience, connections and knowledge of the island’s hilly terrain.

“In over 25 years of hunting on the island, I’ve developed a lot of clientele,” he said. “I’d have SWAT teams from sheriffs’ departments come out and help me with the eradication.”

Gherini said he finds it regrettable that the park service refuses to extend the hunting concession for a few additional months.

He said the sheep are his personal property and that federal law requires the park service to relocate all of his personal property once it seizes his land.

“I’m going to make a demand on the government to relocate the sheep to the mainland,” Gherini said.

Setnicka questions whether Francis Gherini actually owns the sheep, explaining that the park service years ago bought out the interests of Gherini’s brother and two sisters for about $4 million apiece.

Legally, he said, the sheep may be considered abandoned property from those other owners.

Still, Setnicka said, he is intrigued by suggestions that the sheep be trapped and ferried from the island.

“If there is another alternative to have them killed and eaten or killed and stuffed, I’m enthusiastic,” Setnicka said. “But first, I need to know who the sheep belong to, and where they want them delivered.”

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The Gherini family ranch makes up 10% of the massive Santa Cruz Island, which is four times the size of Manhattan. The nonprofit Nature Conservancy owns the other 90% of the island, holding it as a natural preserve.

Gherini said he has wanted to sell his interest in the property for years, but held out for a better price. He has questioned the validity of the latest appraisal, which put the value of his portion of the island at $2.9 million.

Congress stepped in last month and passed a law that forced Gherini to sell, but gave park officials and Gherini a year to negotiate a final price.