Killing of Catalina Island's mule deer has begun, official confirms

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Set us as preferred The controversial shooting and culling of roughly 200 of Catalina Island’s invasive mule deer “is underway,” local officials confirmed to The Times on Wednesday afternoon.The Catalina Island Conservancy, the private nonprofit land trust tasked with protecting most of Catalina’s 48,000 acres, previously announced the project it deemed “limited deer removal” was scheduled to run from September through October.Pepe Barton, the conservancy’s director of communications, confirmed that work had begun this week, shortly after legal challenges to stop the culling were shot down.The conservancy was authorized to start killing deer in early September under a permit issued by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.The conservancy announced last year that it would use contracted hunters to shoot the invasive deer as part of an ecosystem restoration plan.California A judge tentatively rejected a request for a temporary halt to the eradication of all mule deer on Catalina Island.

Meanwhile, a Los Angeles County supervisor has asked the governor to step in.These hunters, a unit of up to a dozen trained professionals employing rifles and bound by state regulations, are expected to kill the island’s non-native mule deer on the ground over four to five years.About 200 deer are anticipated to be killed from September through October.The culling is part of an opening phase that will test whether any other tools, methods or equipment are needed when crews expand the process next year, Barton told The Times earlier this month.The history of deer on the island dates back to the 1920s, when they were brought to Catalina for sport hunting, Barton said.Shortly after their arrival, the deer population exploded to about 2,000.The deer have wreaked havoc on native species as they eat fire-resilient chaparral an...