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Know the West

See the Channel Islands’ stunning ecological recovery

The conservation success story is an example of what decades of work can accomplish.

Theo Whitcomb Photos Jan. 27, 2022

In the early 2000s, wildlife ecologist Peter Sharpe climbed into a bald eagle's nest on the edge of a cliff. He was completely focused on the task at hand: placing identification tags on a juvenile eagle’s legs and wings. He wore a hard hat, like a construction worker; a previous eagle-tagging mission had sent him to the hospital after the dive-bombing parents sank their talons into his scalp.  

Sharpe’s efforts were part of a larger initiative to reintroduce native wildlife in Channel Islands National Park, off the coast of Southern California, and restore the islands’ ecosystems. The bald eagle population collapsed in the 1950s after the powerful insecticide DDT, manufactured and dumped in the ocean by Montrose Chemical Corp., thinned and weakened the birds’ eggshells, causing the keystone species to go locally extinct. 

 

Sharpe and his fellow scientists were successful, and bald eagles were reintroduced in 2002. This was only the beginning: After Channel Islands National Park was established in 1980, a serious effort to restore the native habitat gained steam. Today, the islands are home to around 50 bald eagles, and other formerly threatened species are once again thriving, including the island fox, peregrine falcons and the island scrub jay, which reseeds the islands’ oak trees. Point Bennet, on the coast of San Miguel Island, now hosts the largest seal and sea lion rookery in the world. 

A tree climber about to secure an 8-week-old bald eaglet for a health checkup in Pelican Canyon, Santa Cruz Island, Spring, 2004.
Chuck Graham

Dr. Peter Sharpe from the Institute for Wildlife Studies with an 8-week-old bald eaglet in the Ventura Harbor. The eaglet was transported with several others via National Park Service boat to Santa Cruz Island. They were placed in hack towers until they were 3-months old. Spring 2005.
Chuck Graham

Chuck Graham, a wildlife photographer and guide, spent over 20 years documenting the recovery effort, which he considers a conservation success story. It took decades of work, and the non-native species that dominated the landscape had to be removed — feral pigs were tearing up the ground, while golden eagles had hunted the island foxes to near-extinction. Graham sees the Channel Islands as an excellent model for ecologically disturbed places on the mainland. 

“It's been an incredible turnaround. Getting to document it and watch it has been amazing,” said Graham. “If you just let the work happen, you get to see the result. The islands are such a good example of that.” —Theo Whitcomb is an editorial intern at High Country News.

Jessica Dooley and Peter Sharpe apply a leg band to a bald eaglet on Santa Cruz Island, before placing it inside a hack tower. Spring 2004 (left). An eight-week-old bald eaglet receives a health checkup from biologists from the Institute for Wildlife Studies and National Park Service staff up Pelican Canyon on Santa Cruz Island. Spring 2004 (right).
Chuck Graham
Dr. Peter Sharpe (with helmet) and Nate Melling from the Institute for Wildlife Studies give a peregrine falcon chick a checkup and apply tags on East Anacapa Island. Spring 2019.
Chuck Graham

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Rare, nocturnal seabirds like the ashy storm petrel receive health checks in the middle of the night on Scorpion Rock, Scorpion Anchorage, Santa Cruz Island. Summer 2021 (left). A biologist holds up an island scrub jay during a health check. The birds that are trapped receive a vaccine from West Nile Virus and receive a leg band. The jays are found on Santa Cruz Island, and no where else in the world. They have the smallest range of any bird in North America (right).
Chuck Graham
Stacy Baker (left) and another biologist from the Channel Islands National Park hold up two island fox pups during a population grid in Scorpion Canyon on Santa Cruz Island. Summer 2017.
Chuck Graham

Island foxes on Santa Cruz Island are prolific tree climbers. There are some old fig trees in Scorpion Canyon, leftovers from the ranching era that the local population enjoys. September 2021.
Chuck Graham

Throngs of California sea lions hauled out at Point Bennett on the western fringe of San Miguel Island. September 2020.
Chuck Graham

A-03, a 5-year-old, male bald eagle now making a home at Scorpion Anchorage on the southeast end of Santa Cruz Island. He was born in a nest located out near Fraser Point on the west end of the island. He represents a successful recovery of bald eagles across the national park with 12 nesting pairs and 24 individual eagles.
Chuck Graham

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