Letters to the Editor: Does anyone really go to Catalina just to see the bison?

To the editor: The Los Angeles Times’ report on the nonprofit Catalina Island Conservancy’s decision to import more bison shows the battle between the group’s traditionalists and its business interests. Conservancy leader Tony Budrovich, who heads the business faction, is quoted as saying that the bison are Catalina’s “number one” attraction, which is ridiculous.

The first of my dozens of trips to Catalina took place in the late 1940s. Some of my ancestors had come to the island as early as the 19th century and worked for the family that owned much of Catalina’s land until it was sold to William Wrigley Jr. in 1919.

On the trips my family would take to the interior part of the island, we could ocassionally see the bison up close, but more often than not we would see them off in the distance.

So, I feel it’s safe for me to say that I never heard anyone in my family tell me, “Let’s go to Catalina to see the bison.”

Warren Larson, Sunland

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To the editor: As an archaeologist, I spent a summer camping at Case Springs on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. Several bison from the San Diego Zoo were in our vicinity. They were grazing open land; nothing was within three miles of us.

The big bull chased a juvenile; it must have been going 25 to 30 miles per hour. I kept my distance; even the small ones were huge.

I know Catalina well. I’d assess that the chance for bad human-animal interaction to be pretty high, given the fact that more animals draw more people.

Those beasts are big, and Catalina isn’t.

Michael Frishberg, Torrance