Santa Rosa Island is in the middle of its final hunting closure and Channel Islands National Park officials have brought in professional hunters to kill the last of the non-native deer and elk living on the island 30 miles southwest of Santa Barbara.

Vail & Vickers Cattle Co., which had owned the 83-square-mile island since the early 1900s, sold it to the National Park Service in 1986 for $30 million. Afterward, the company was contracted to manage an annual private hunting operation on the island that targeted the deer and elk.

A legal settlement with the National Parks Conservation Association demands that all of the animals be gone by the end of 2011, Channel Islands National Park spokeswoman Yvonne Menard said in a news release.

Commercial hunting began in August and the island is completely closed this month to allow park rangers and “a cooperator” to remove any remaining deer and elk, which had been imported to the island as game animals nearly 100 years ago.

There will be restricted public access only on weekends through December, Menard said. After that, the entire island will be open to the public year-round.

Santa Rosa Island is home to more than 100 bird, mammal, amphibian and reptile species and colonies of sea lions, seals and seabirds. To protect those habitats, the park has a policy to prevent non-native species on the islands and prohibits bringing pets, live or potted plants, cut flowers, soil or firewood to them.

“These temporary closures are meant to ensure safety during this final removal of deer and elk from Santa Rosa Island,” Park Superintendent Russell Galipeau said in a statement. “Beginning in 2012, there will be no visitor restrictions for hunt management.”

— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.