The killing of mule deer on Catalina Island will go forward after a judge tentatively denied a request from hunting groups and concerned citizens to pause the controversial plan pending the outcome of a legal challenge.
The Catalina Island Conservancy was authorized to start killing deer Tuesday under a permit issued by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and said it would proceed while awaiting a final ruling. The conservancy, which manages 88% of the island, announced last year that it would use contracted hunters to shoot the invasive deer over four to five years as part of an ecosystem restoration plan.
Roughly 200 deer will be killed from September through October as part of an initial phase to test methods and see whether any other tools or equipment are needed when crews expand the process next year, said Pepe Barton, director of communications for the Catalina Island Conservancy.
About 22 deer were brought to the channel island for sport hunting in the late 1920s, and their numbers soon ballooned to roughly 2,000, Barton said.
The deer eat fire-resilient chaparral and other native plants, making way for invasive annual grasses, which ignite more easily, increase erosion and leave less water to soak into aquifers, he said. The deer also reduce habitat and food sources for native birds and mammals, like the endemic Catalina Island fox, he said.
“Extinction should not be an option for the plants and animals only found on Catalina in order to save an invasive species that is well-established in all of California and the West,” Barton said.
“We know, based on all the specific scientific studies and research that has occurred on Catalina, that we can’t do full island restoration work until the invasive herbivores are removed,” he added.
A legal challenge to the eradication plan was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in March by hunting nonprofits and concerned citizens including Safari Club International, the California Rifle & Pistol Assn. and the Coalition to Save Catalina Island Deer.
Recreational deer hunting has long been allowed on the island but has not controlled their numbers and will come to an end after this year’s season.
The petition for writ of mandate challenges the CDFW’s decision to exempt the plan from review under the California Environmental Quality Act, alleging the documentation the agency relied on “is the product of a biased, closed-off ‘process’ that ignored valid concerns raised by the public, including Petitioners, about the environmental, social, and economic impacts of eradicating an entire species from an ecosystem and the methods employed to do so.”
The CDFW said it does not comment on pending litigation.
Superior Court Judge Curtis A. Kin on Tuesday tentatively denied the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction, saying there would be no irreparable harm to let the deer eradication plan begin because the process starts with a “pre-removal assessment” while the “actual eradication phase is not set to occur until June 2027.”
A final ruling on the injunction is expected within 90 days.
The plan has drawn opposition from some hunters, locals, animal advocates and elected officials. Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn has long opposed the eradication, ever since a previous plan called for sharpshooters to take aim at the deer from helicopters. “These deer have become beloved to many of the islanders, as well as the thousands of tourists who descend on Catalina Island every year,” she said Tuesday in an interview.
The day before, Hahn sent a letter asking Gov. Gavin Newsom to suspend or revoke the permit. The governor responded that he’s looking into the matter, she said.
“I strongly opposed the Conservancy’s permit application because I believe eradicating an entire population of animals that have been part of Catalina’s landscape for nearly a century is an extreme, unnecessary response that poses serious unintended consequences,” Hahn wrote in the letter.
Removing all the deer would actually increase fire risk by allowing brush to grow uncontrolled, according to Hahn. “My fire chief says that all vegetation, native or otherwise, is fuel that could explode in a fire,” she said. “He considers the deer population a natural fire management system.”
In a memo earlier this year, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone wrote that, while removing the deer would reduce the spread of invasive plants and support native species, completely eradicating them would also increase chaparral fuel loads, which are more difficult to manage than grasses in the event of a wildfire.
“Increased fuel loading would elevate wildfire risk to developed areas, particularly in Avalon and other locations where heavy fuels are present within 200 feet of structures,” he wrote.
Marrone recommended that land managers instead reduce the deer’s numbers and actively manage the population, which he said would limit the risk of converting the vegetation to grasslands while also helping to moderate fuel loading near communities. Hahn said she also supports keeping a smaller population of about 200 deer on the island.
Maintaining a smaller deer population is not possible, according to Barton, who said the conservancy fully evaluated other methods for solving the deer challenge, which has vexed them for at least 20 years.
“The deer have a tendency to quickly repopulate,” he said. “Then you’re in an endless cycle of killing in order to keep that population small.”
The issue isn’t just about the number of deer, but the impact they’re having on the island, Barton said. “The solution — which is basically the only solution at this point — is the lethal removal of all the deer to best protect the island.”
He also pointed to an open letter signed by six fire scientists and plant ecologists, saying the mule deer increase fire risk on the island because the grasslands they help create compete with slower-growing native shrubs “and can reinforce a positive feedback loop in which more frequent fire favors more grass, and more grass favors more frequent fire.”
“Native chaparral and shrublands evolved under infrequent fire,” the scientists wrote. “Losing them to invasive grassland means a more dangerous fire regime that threatens biodiversity, and the people and livelihoods that depend on Catalina Island.”
Hahn said that the opposing viewpoints could have been more thoroughly debated, had the project been subject to CEQA review. But the state instead classified it under a statutory exemption for environmental restoration projects.
“Right now, it’s, do you believe my fire chief or do you believe the conservancy?” Hahn said. “But CEQA would make them go through that process and look at all the unintended consequences of the deer eradication.”
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