private game preserve for the military

[Okwes]

private game preserve for the military

Senators Feinstein and Boxer Urge Senate Opposition to House Measure to Limit
Public Access to Santa Rosa Island
Senators Boxer and Feinstein oppose measure by House Armed Services Committee to
transform Santa Rosa Island into private game preserve for the military
By: Feinstein office
Published: May 5, 2006 at 08:20
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U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer (both D-Calif.) are urging the
Senate to firmly oppose a proposal by Representative Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) to
limit public access to Santa Rosa Island. The island is part of the Channel
Islands National Park, located off the coast of Southern California.

"Santa Rosa Island is home to rare and endangered species of island birds and
fox, beautiful fields of wildflowers, rocky tidal pools, unique fossils, and
Chumash sandstone carvings. It's critical that the National Parks Service is
allowed to do its job and protect this integral part of California's historical
and natural heritage," Senator Feinstein said. "Senator Boxer and I will do
everything we can to oppose any effort to turn Santa Rosa Island into a private
hunting reserve for only members of the armed services, veterans and their
guests. I support recreational activities for our troops and veterans, but I
believe that all taxpayers alike deserve the right to enjoy this local
recreational retreat."

"As part of our National Park system, Santa Rosa Island is a natural treasure
that belongs to all of us - and its access to the public should not be limited,"
Senator Boxer said. "I will be working with my colleague Senator Feinstein to
ensure that this misguided plan does not become reality."

"I commend Senator Feinstein and Senator Boxer for introducing this resolution
that recognizes the importance of Santa Rosa Island and the Channel Islands
National Park," said Representative Lois Capps (D-Calif.), who represents the
coastal area where the islands are located. "The continued attempts to kick the
public off the Island and continue indefinitely the trophy hunting of non-native
deer and elk on Santa Rosa is a terrible idea and I have been working hard to
stop it. The Senators were critical in killing this plan when it surfaced late
last year and I am grateful for their continued help to keep Santa Rosa open for
future generations."

Earlier this week, the House Armed Services Committee, which Representative
Hunter chairs, voted in favor of his proposal that would limit public access to
the island by extending the current practice of allowing privately organized
deer and elk hunting expeditions. These hunts require the closure of about 90%
of the island to the general public for about 4-5 months each year.

The measure would also prevent the National Park Service from carrying out a
court-approved settlement to remove non-native deer and elk from Santa Rosa
Island by 2011. The deer and elk herds pose a threat to the island's 11
endangered species, including the bald eagle, rare plants, and native birds and
fox.

In response, Senators Feinstein and Boxer have introduced a Senate resolution
that would allow for continued public access to Santa Rosa Island and would
ensure that the National Park Service is allowed to properly manage and
administer Santa Rosa Island in accordance with its policies and regulations.
Today, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks
announced that it will host a hearing on this issue on Tuesday, May 16 at 2:30
p.m.

Twice before, Representative Hunter has unsuccessfully tried to transform the
Island into a trophy hunt preserve available only to members of the armed
services, veterans, and their guests.

Santa Rosa Island

Channel Islands National Monument was designated in 1938 by President Franklin
D. Roosevelt under the authority of the Antiquities Act. The monument was
expanded to include additional islands and redesignated as Channel Islands
National Park in 1980 in order to protect the nationally significant natural,
scenic, wildlife, marine, ecological, archaeological, cultural, and scientific
values of the Channel Islands in California.

Santa Rosa Island was acquired by the United States in 1986 for approximately
$30 million for the purpose of restoring its native ecology and making the
island available to the public for recreational uses. The previous owners of the
island retained only the right to use a 7 and one-half acre parcel of land
through 2011.

There are 11 endangered or threatened plant and animal species on the island,
many of which would be harmed by the continued presence of the non-native elk
and deer population. Under a court-approved settlement, the deer and elk were to
be removed from the park by 2011.

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[Okwes]

Anyway, yeah National Parks has the Channel Islands. And Santa Rosa has hunting
of non-native species until 2011 after which time the remaining non-native
species are to be removed (I don't know how). But that guy, U.S. Rep. Duncan
Hunter, really did propose, on or about May 1 or 2, making Santa Rosa Navy
property on which only armed service folks and their guests would be allowed to
hunt. It's not the first time he's made such a proposal, though.

I don't doubt that Feinstein is guilty of grandstanding. I've yet to hear of a
professional politician who isn't.


My gripe, not including what I think of hunting just for the fun of hunting and
killing for trophies and thrills, is that the Chumash-ness, and for that matter
the Tongva-ness, of the Channel Islands is ignored, overlooked, abused, and so
on.

These islands - Huima/Wimat (Santa Rosa), Tukan (San Miguel), Limu (Santa Cruz),
and Anacapa were essentially a Chumash nation, with an antap government apart
from mainland Chumash and Tongva. And their descendants are the Coastal Chumash
(among others).

Further, we lose so much when we lose just one, what - memory? bit of culture?
?? In the names of Chumash places, these islands included, are part of a great
big story, a truth. Huima - in Hawaiian, for instance, it refers to the group.
Limu - in Hawaiian it means seaweed, which is a resource. Tukan, that's a
little more challenging to recognize, but if I see is as Ku-kan then I see a) Ku
- stand, upright, a male god, relating, among other things, to canoe trees/logs;
b) Kan - maybe Kane, man/male, a male god relating to, among other things, the
sun, the Creator, and fresh water; c) Ku-kanaka - upright person; d) Kulkulcan,
not Hawaiian by name, but resembling the returning Hawaiian/Polynesian god
Lono/Rono/Ro'o, and, of course Quetzlcoatl of central America. Kukan, by the
way, was the island onto which the ocean current left huge redwood logs that
floated down from the north, making these Channel Islands rich with canoe-making
resources.

All those names, together with Tongva = Tonga (the Polynesian island) = Kona
(the direction - south), and the Chumash name Muwu (now Pt. Mugu, and in
Hawaiian Mu = the first people and mumu refers to silence and to sound) and
Lahui (in Hawaiian = the nation), the name of the first Chumash "Queen" of the
Channel Islands Chumash nation, talk about a relationship among Inca/Maya,
Hawaii and Polynesia, and the Chumash and Tongva peoples.

I just think it's really important that this sort of knowledge not get lost, not
be forgotten, ignored, overlooked.

[Okwes]

This is Feinstein office sponsored propaganda. The National Park
Service has been managing the wildlife and that island quite well.
The aim of what Feinstein is trying to do is ban hunting. This is
the island where the National Park Service has been ordered by the
court system to wipe out all the game animals currently living on the
island. The premise behind that is that they pose a threat to the 11
endangered or threatened plant and animal species on the island.
That's a load of rubish. Diane Feinstein is grandstanding.