Sting of El Nino

The historic bunkhouse is ruined, its twisted frame now 40 feet from its original spot at Scorpion Ranch.

The old blacksmith shop is simply gone, washed out to sea by a torrent of water that swept across Santa Cruz Island in last weekend’s storm.

The shed that matched the bunkhouse is also gone. And except for a timber or two, the barn is lost too.

“You see that bulldozer there?” said Channel Islands National Park Supt. Tim Setnicka, pointing to a piece of yellow machinery in the middle of a stream bed. “The barn used to surround it. The bulldozer is there. The barn is not.”

Only the two-story adobe stands tall, but the storm brought 4 feet of water and muck inside the century-old building.

Once envisioned as the centerpiece for tourism on the island, Scorpion Ranch lies in tatters in the aftermath of an El Nino-driven storm that dumped more than 11 inches of rain Friday.

“The historical fabric of Scorpion Ranch has been damaged and may have been lost forever,” Setnicka said.

On Wednesday, Setnicka toured the ranch to assess the damage, and lay plans for what could be a $1-million restoration plan.

Slogging through mud, pointing out high-water marks inside buildings and lamenting those structures washed to sea, Setnicka referred to the ranch as a “war zone.”

Caught behind a berm near the ocean’s edge, the runoff lifted the bunkhouse and floated it downstream, Setnicka said. “It was not enough to make it a beach house. But it’s pretty darn close.”

Santa Cruz Island has been part of the five-island park since its creation in 1980, but ranchers continued to use its eastern end until last year.

That is when Congress seized the 6,300-acre ranch, intent on restoring the historic buildings and the environment there.

Setnicka said the ranchers’ land-use practices--allowing herds of sheep to graze on the land--exacerbated the erosion and the damage to the buildings.

But a ranch manager who worked on the island faulted the National Park Service for failing to prepare for the first major storm of the winter.

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Since the park service took over the land in February, Setnicka has set out to make what he calls “the world’s greatest national park” an even greater treasure.

But restoring the eastern side of the island to its original condition before the ranchers arrived will take much longer than anticipated.

“We were making great strides out here,” Setnicka said.

Setnicka is not the only one lamenting the losses at the Scorpion Ranch.

Andrea Gherini, whose family owned the property for more than 130 years, said a part of her life was swept out to sea last weekend.

“We lived in the bunkhouse whenever we were there as kids,” said Gherini, 41, who now lives in Oceanside. “It’s heartbreaking to see that the house isn’t going to be there anymore.”

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The damage at Scorpion Ranch was not limited to the main ranch area. In the campground north of the ranch, 75-foot eucalyptus trees dating back 100 years were uprooted. Still others left standing were precariously close to falling, the soil around their root balls showing signs of erosion.

What the storm didn’t break free of its moorings it blanketed in sediment. Eighteen inches of new rock and soil now cover the floor of Scorpion Valley and beneath it are buried many of the ranch’s historical artifacts.

Sam Spaulding, an archeologist with the park service, joined Wednesday’s tour of Scorpion Ranch to flag where the destroyed buildings used to be and document the erosion.

“What struck me was the amount of runoff and the redeposition of so much soil and so many rocks,” Spaulding said. “It is so sad because we were getting a handle on everything out here.”

The ranch has been closed since Monday, and Setnicka said it is too soon to say when it will be in full operation.

Contrasted with the pristine beauty of the rest of the national park, he said the area looks as if a “terrorist” had been let loose there.

In February, Setnicka equated the park service’s takeover to a “liberation” of the 10% of the island that had been scarred by man.

Under park service control, Setnicka said, the former Gherini Ranch would be restored to the natural beauty of the remaining 90% of Santa Cruz Island that is already an ecological preserve owned by the nonprofit Nature Conservancy.

But as Setnicka contemplated damage by the weekend storm, he said the outlook for a return to its original condition is much bleaker.

Setnicka said land-use practices in the past, including allowing sheep to roam free on the eastern hillsides, have destroyed much of the native vegetation that could have kept the soil intact and prevented the massive erosion that occurred.

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The island is still home to about 1,500 feral sheep, and all of them survived the storm just fine.

Restoration of the eastern side of the island requires moving out all the sheep, and Setnicka said the relocation process will continue, albeit at a slower pace now.

But Andre Barclay, a ranch manager who has been working with the Gherinis, said blaming land-use practices alone skirts an even bigger issue--preparation.

“That Scorpion adobe and the blacksmith shop have been there over 100 years,” Barclay said. “They’ve had a lot of rain out there and it’s always survived.”

One of the worst storms hit in 1995 and resulted in the flooding of the first floor of the adobe, he said.

But the blacksmith shop survived, he said, because steps were taken before the storm to keep the water out.

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“Every farmer will tell you when the forecast says a lot of rain, you go out there and clear the ditches and the berms,” Barclay said. “You do a lot of work, and it pays off.”

“It’s been a successful policy for over 100 years,” Barclay said.

Prevention of flooding is part of the cleanup plan. At the same time, Setnicka has to decide how much of the ranch to open and for what use.

“Should we allow camping throughout the winter?” he said. “If we get another storm would we be putting people in jeopardy?”

For now, he expects to reopen the campground for day use in about two weeks.

Andrea Gherini shares Setnicka’s concern for the future. She had hoped the bunkhouse and other buildings would one day be used as a welcome center for visitors.

But in the wake of last weekend’s storm she believes her plan might never be realized.

“The saddest part for me is having something in your family for 130 years and losing it,” she said. “That’s the downside. The upside was the public was going to enjoy it for another 130 years.”

“But now they’re never going to see what I saw.”