The fight over Catalina Island’s mule deer has shifted from the sky to the ground, and now to the road. After years of controversy over aerial culling, state wildlife officials have approved a plan that would rely on moving vehicles and professional shooters to wipe out the island’s herd, a decision that has ignited a fierce debate over safety, ethics, and what it means to restore a fragile ecosystem. The strategy, framed as a last resort to protect native plants and animals, would fundamentally change daily life on the island while putting its iconic deer on a collision course with policy.
Supporters argue that the herd, introduced for sport nearly a century ago, has grown far beyond what Catalina’s dry hillsides can sustain. Opponents counter that the new approach, which involves sharpshooters firing from trucks and other moving platforms, risks turning public roads and backcountry tracks into live-fire zones. The stakes are not just ecological but political, financial, and deeply emotional for residents who have lived alongside the animals for generations.
How a remote island ended up with 2,200 mule deer
Catalina Island’s mule deer are not native, but they have become a defining part of the landscape for visitors and residents who are used to seeing them along canyon roads and golf course fairways. The herd traces back to deliberate introductions for hunting, a decision that made sense to earlier generations but now collides with modern conservation priorities. Over time, without natural predators and with limited hunting pressure, the population swelled into the thousands, with recent planning documents citing nearly all of the island’s roughly 2,200 m animals as targets for removal.
That number matters because Catalina’s terrain is finite and fragile, dominated by chaparral, coastal sage scrub, and rare plant communities that evolved without heavy browsing by large ungulates. Conservation biologists have warned that the deer strip seedlings before they can mature, compact soils, and accelerate erosion on steep slopes that drop into the Pacific. The Catalina Island Conservancy, which manages most of the island’s interior, has argued that the only way to give native species a chance is to eliminate the herd entirely, not simply trim it back. That framing, restoration versus recreation, is what set the stage for the current eradication plan and the controversial use of moving vehicles to carry it out.
From helicopter hunts to road-based sharpshooters
The current vehicle-based strategy did not appear in a vacuum. Earlier efforts centered on aerial gunning, with the Catalina Island Conservancy seeking permission to shoot deer from helicopters over the island’s rugged canyons. That proposal triggered intense backlash from residents who worried about stray rounds, wounded animals, and the psychological impact of low-flying aircraft over homes and schools. State officials ultimately halted the helicopter plan after public outcry, a decision that forced managers to look for alternatives that would still meet aggressive eradication targets while addressing safety concerns raised in California officials hearings…