By Glen Wunderlich

At this link you will see how our leaders are forced to consider various means to control burgeoning elk herds on the Baca National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado.  Because of input from a public comment session last year, the introduction of wolves to the area is on the table.  Nowhere, however, do I see the genius proposed by Representative Duncan Hunter of California, when similar circumstances had developed on Santa Rosa Island a few years ago.   This new potential for a repeat performance of stupidity at the Baca National Wildlife Refuge defines the logic of fools.

Below, in a piece of January 2008 I wrote the following and it is hauntingly familiar:

Approximately 40 miles of Pacific Ocean separate the mainland of Santa Barbara, California from once-privately owned Santa Rosa Island, the crown jewel of the Channel Islands National Park. The island, purchased with $30 million of taxpayers’ money, is home to 1100 Roosevelt Elk and Kaibab Mule Deer, which were imported to the island by the private owners some 75 years ago. Since that time, the non-native species have coexisted with various flora and fauna and have remained free from any diseases common to their cousins elsewhere. The following question has arisen since ownership has changed hands: Should the park be protected and open to all Americans year-round or should it also be made available to hunters to manage the elk and deer population? In a clever manipulation of power, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and Congresswoman Lois Capps (all Democrats from California) have arranged for the extermination of all of these magnificent animals. None will survive. Read more