Group says military could get Santa Rosa Island

[question everything]

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Group says military could get Santa Rosa Island

By: PHIL DIEHL - Staff Writer
(San Diego) North County Times

An environmentalist group charged Friday that U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, plans to amend a pending defense bill to make Santa Rosa Island, now part of the Channel Islands National Park, an exclusive outpost for military training and recreation.

Santa Rosa, about 46 miles offshore, is the second largest of five undeveloped islands in the national park along the Southern California coast. The largest is Santa Cruz Island, of which 75 percent is owned by the Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit group that preserves examples of a variety of native wilderness.

Hunter's planned amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill would give Santa Rosa Island to the Defense Department and make it an exclusive recreational outpost and game reserve for armed services personnel and veterans, according to a news release from the environmentalist group, the National Parks Conservation Association. It also would allow military special operations forces to train on the island.

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Contact staff writer Phil Diehl at [phone] or [e-mail].


http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/12/11/news/top_stories/23_59_0312_9_05.txt

[Oerdin]

1. Not likely.

Half of the island is owned by the nature conservancy while the other half is owned by the park service. It is doubtful even the biggest Republican fraudsters would vote to destroy a national park with an election less then a year a way. Nor is the nature conservancy likely likely to give up its ownership rights.

BTW I went to UCSB and did a fair amount of geology field studies out on Santa Rosa. It's a nice place and one of the least visited National Parks dispite being so close to LA. I guess most people either don't know it exists or don't want to take the boat ride out to the islands.