Catalina Island Conservancy defends controversial plan to eradicate deer population

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:02]We understand all of the connections that people have and it's a last resort.

[00:00:08]>> Tonight, the Catalina Island Conservancy speaking out about their controversial plan to eradicate the deer population from the island.

[00:00:16]>> CBS LA assignment editor Mike Rogers is at the desk now. Mike, you covered this story extensively. Well, tonight the Conservancy says this is their only option.

[00:00:25]>> Yeah, you know, Pat and Rudabeh, we've been talking about this story, this plan that has been approved and is moving forward to kill and remove all of the deer from Catalina Island. Now, many people are against it, including County Board of Supervisors, the fire chief himself, County Council has written a letter, hunters are opposed to this plan, but the Catalina Island Conservancy says it's the only way to retain and restore the natural habitat on Catalina Island. They say the deer, which were an invasive species brought onto the island decades ago, have created this. Fire hazards, dry brush, and invasive grasses that have become commonplace on the island. This is a restoration project they're trying to do there on Catalina to try to restore some of the natural habitats. They say having the deer on the island is a fire risk.

[00:01:06]Now, many others completely disagree with that. The fire chief has written a letter to the Conservancy saying the deer is what keeps the fire hazard low.

[00:01:14]You can see them here eating the grass.

[00:01:16]The Conservancy says it's the exact opposite and it's actually the deer that are causing the fire risk to begin with.

[00:01:22]Now, there is the also the humanitarian portion of this. People don't want to see the deer slaughtered on the island or it's not slaughtered rather, but shot and killed on the island, left there.

[00:01:31]Now, the Conservancy tells me tonight that that won't be the case. They're going to pull them out of public view.

[00:01:35]Some of them will be donated to different organizations where their bodies and their carcasses can be used, but still, some people say it's not enough. Tonight, the Conservancy says they've looked at other options and this is all they have.

[00:01:47]>> You know, this is not the first option we would want to come to.

[00:01:52]We've looked at relocation. The state's not going to allow that because they have tried it in the 1980s from Angel Island and 85% of those deer died within the first year. Uh we've looked at uh sterilization, but that is surgery and across 48,000 acres, 2,000 deer, that's just not possible or feasible. We've looked at contraception, but the way deer are bio biologically made up, you would have to catch that same deer to then introduce contraception regularly.

[00:02:23]And so, that's just not a feasible across the steep acreage of of Catalina.

[00:02:28]We understand all of the connections that people have and it's a last resort, but we also have to think long term and ensure that the island is going to be protected long into the future.

[00:02:41]>> Uh this plan made headlines recently again because of a fire north of Catalina on Santa Rosa Island. Santa Rosa Island also removed all of their deer in 2011 and supervisor Janice Hahn wrote a letter saying, "Look, they got rid of their deer. Now their island is on fire." That fire burned more than or nearly 20,000 acres on Santa Rosa Island. I asked Mr. Barton, "If the grass is already there because the deer have already done the damage, what's to stop that from happening on Catalina?"

[00:03:05]He maintains they have a good partnership with the LA County Fire Department despite the delete letter the chief sent and also says they're going to do habitat restoration to remove some of that native or non-native grasses rather and replace it with the less fuel uh fire uh hazardous fuel that's already there. Lots of opinions on this. If you've got one, we want to hear from you. Text the desk 818-221-2222.

[00:03:26]We've already heard from so many people on this, Pat and Ruta Bay, and of course we're keeping an eye on it. That plan moving forward expected to have no deer on Catalina Island in 5 years.

[00:03:35]All right, we'll see.