WASHINGTON — California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein predicted Tuesday that the Senate would refuse to allow deer and elk hunting to continue on Santa Rosa Island beyond 2011.

"We just think this, if I can use a colloquial term, is kind of a no-brainer," Boxer said.

Boxer said the argument for ending the hunting is bolstered by several factors: A court order says the hunting must end by 2011, Santa Rosa is home to the endangered island fox, and permitting commercial hunting to continue permanently would allow the private company that runs the hunting operations to reap financial gain off public land.

"It just seems to us that we have the facts on our side," Boxer said.

Feinstein said she would be surprised if the Senate allows the hunting operations to continue permanently, given that the National Park Service is against the idea.

"It is clearly something that is being done for personal gain on public land, and I think that is a non sequitur," she said.

The two senators are pushing legislation that would counter a House plan to allow commercial hunting operations on the island to continue permanently.

The House proposal, introduced by California Congressman Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, was approved overwhelmingly Thursday as part of a $512.9 billion defense authorization bill.

Boxer and Feinstein's legislation essentially negates Hunter's proposal by dictating that the Park Service manage Santa Rosa in a manner guaranteeing the island's "natural, scenic and cultural resources" are properly protected.

In addition, their proposal would prohibit the Park Service from managing Santa Rosa in a manner "that would result in the public being denied access to significant portions of the land."

The park also could not be operated in a manner that is "inconsistent" with the Park Service's responsibility "to protect native resources within the park, including threatened and endangered species."

At a Senate hearing Tuesday, Park Service Deputy Director Steve Martin said the agency has not taken a position on Feinstein and Boxer's proposal but agrees that hunting on the island should not continue beyond 2011.

Santa Rosa is part of Channel Islands National Park. Congress made a deliberate decision not to allow hunting on the islands when they were redesignated from a national monument to a national park in 1979 and 1980, Martin said.

"We feel that is still the appropriate decision today," Martin told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee's subcommittee on national parks.

The Park Service bought Santa Rosa from the Vail cattle ranching family for $30 million in 1986. A court settlement allowed the family's company, Vail & Vickers, to continue limited hunting operations on the island through 2011.

Boxer said she and Feinstein thought the hunting issue had been settled last year when Hunter withdrew two similar proposals that would have allowed the hunting to continue.

"We thought it was going away, and then he did this on the defense bill," Boxer said. "It looks like he's just bound and determined to keep pushing."

Boxer and Feinstein said Hunter did not call them to discuss his proposal.

"The point is, the company sold this land to the Park Service for a park," Feinstein said. "The point is also that there is a court settlement that says hunting ends at 2011.

"What Congressman Hunter has done is essentially say no, hunting doesn't end in 2011, which then gives this company the opportunity to get enormous prices on the land from hunting (and) close the land off to the general public for a period of months during the year during special hunting seasons. And I think that's wrong."

The subcommittee did not vote on Boxer and Feinstein's proposal. But Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and a member of the panel, said while he generally supports hunting and other recreational activities, he doesn't believe hunting is appropriate in a national park like Santa Rosa Island.