Island Evacuated for Wild Horse Removal

Park rangers abruptly evacuated one of the Channel Islands on Wednesday, citing concerns that a handful of campers, including an activist with a video camera, would hamper removal of a herd of wild horses.

The action comes as a final chapter is written in the months-long legal struggle between the National Park Service and a Santa Barbara-based group that unsuccessfully sued to keep the horses on Santa Cruz Island. The free-ranging horses, vestiges of a ranching era, pose a threat to the island environment, officials say.

Late Wednesday afternoon, six horses were escorted from the corral where they spent the past week, trotted through a chute and loaded into a trailer aboard a ship at Scorpion Bay for the two-hour trip to the mainland, park spokeswoman Carol Spears said.

The horses are headed for a ranch in Northern California after a quarantine period near Buellton. Spears said the remaining 10 animals will be removed today and Friday. Santa Cruz Island will remain closed until noon Friday.

The action comes less than two weeks after the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld on Sept. 11 a lower-court ruling in the lawsuit, clearing the way to remove the animals and return them to their owners, the Gherini family.

Although officials at Channel Islands National Park said they have been planning the move since that day, they kept the schedule under wraps until the removal began Wednesday.

Also, park officials did not alert ferryboat operators, would not disclose the identities of the evicted campers and blocked press and public access on both shores during the horse removal.

Rangers awakened six campers just after dawn to order the eviction. The move is highly unusual because park closures typically occur only during emergencies, to protect wildlife during breeding seasons or to restore habitat.

“They woke us up at 7:15 a.m. and said we need to get ready and leave the island because a vet was coming over and we had to leave for our own safety,” said Tippy McKinsey, a camper from Santa Barbara. “It made no sense because the horses were all corralled. This is unreasonable. This is public land and our tax dollars pay for this national park.”

McKinsey said she was targeted for removal when National Park Service officials learned she was filming the event for a documentary on wild horses. She said the other campers were families and couples lodged several hundred yards from the corral.

Spears said campers were evicted from the island as a precaution. Crowds and commotion, she said, could spook the horses, leading to injury.

“These horses have never been handled. They’ve never been put into a trailer. We are being advised that we should minimize any stress to people,” Spears said.

But Channel Islands National Park Supt. Tim Setnicka said he restricted public access to the horse removal to keep the veterinarian, Timothy B. Vail of San Diego, and horse wranglers out of public scrutiny.

“I wanted them to perform their job, “ Setnicka said. “To have it work and work best was to have no observers.”

Setnicka said it became apparent early Wednesday that McKinsey was going to film the operation, possibly for Santa Barbara-based Foundation for Horses and Other Animals Inc., the plaintiff in the lawsuit. That made workers involved in the horse relocation nervous about being drawn into the controversy, he said. Setnicka said at that point he decided to close the island for the duration of the operation.

“With those folks there,” Setnicka said of McKinsey and her acquaintance, “they killed it for the other folks” vacationing on the island. “We don’t have to put these [horse] handlers and a vet under the microscope.”

Lynne Sherman, a director with the horse foundation, criticized the National Park Service for conducting the horse removal outside public view. She added her organization will continue to follow the horses to ensure they are treated humanely.

“We asked for a timetable for this removal and they wouldn’t answer our correspondence or calls. They are not calling us to witness or participate in this. The Park Service is keeping us out. It’s very troubling. They have completely stonewalled us,” Sherman said.

The National Park Service declined to release the names of campers who were evicted. Setnicka said they received apologies and full refunds.

Despite those problems, Setnicka said the horse removal was proceeding smoothly and that the goal is to finish relocating the horses today and reopen Santa Cruz Island Friday. The Park Service owns 6,000 acres on the eastern end of the island; The Nature Conservancy owns the rest, which is off limits to visitors.

“Things went very well today,” Setnicka said.

The 24-mile long Santa Cruz Island, largest in the Channel Islands chain, is a popular destination. About 60,000 people hike or camp on the five islands in the national park each year, according to the Park Service.

The 16 wild horses at the center of the controversy have roamed the islands steep slopes since 1984. They were used to round up sheep on the island, but since have taken to grazing, a practice Park Service officials say is harmful to native plants and wildlife, and puts the horses in direct conflict with the service’s mission to preserve native flora and fauna.

Tom Gherini, a member of the family that once resided on the island and owns the horses, said the herd will be quarantined for 30 days to guard against catching or spreading equine diseases found on mainland California. Next, the herd will be relocated to the Wild Horse Sanctuary near Red Bluff to roam with 200 other horses over 5,000 acres, Gherini said. He said every measure is being taken to make sure the horses are removed safely and in good health.