The California Coastal Commission voted 5-3 this week to drop nearly 3,000 pounds of poison from helicopters onto the Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge in a controversial effort to stop invasive mice.
The vote passed on Thursday evening, giving authorities initial approval to drop the poison onto the islands in a bid to stop the mice, which are threatening rare bird populations. The plan will now have to be approved by the Pacific Southwest regional director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, however, before action can take place.
“To protect and preserve the native, endemic species and habitats of the South Farallon Islands, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to eradicate the non-native, invasive house mouse from the islands through the use of bait pellets treated with the rodenticide brodifacoum,” read the proposal to the commission, explaining that the poison would be “deployed from a specialized bait spreading bucket s...