Channel Islands National Park

Park Information

• Date Established: March 5, 1980
• Location: Off the coast of Southern California
• Area: 249,354 acres

Overview

Channel Islands National Park consists of five of the eight Channel Islands, an island chain off the coast of Southern California. The national park includes 389.6 square miles (1,009 square kilometers) of land and the surrounding ocean. The closest island to the mainland is located about 11 miles (17.7 kilometers) from Oxnard, California; the farthest is about 69 miles (111 kilometers) away. Two of the smaller islands—Anacapa and Santa Barbara Island—were named a national monument in 1938. San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz islands were added in 1980 when the area was declared a national park. The southernmost Channel Islands—Santa Catalina, San Clemente, and San Nicolas—are not part of the national park.

The national park is known for its scenic beauty and diverse wildlife. Its isolated environment has been compared to the Galapagos Islands, a chain of South American islands famous for its unique ecosystem. Of the more than 2,000 plant and animal species in the Channel Islands National Park, 145 are not found anywhere else on Earth. The park is also the site of a marine sanctuary that extends for 7 miles (11.3 kilometers) around the islands. The only ways to reach the park are by boat or plane. According to the National Park Service, 323,000 people visited the park in 2022.

History

Scientists have determined humans were living on the Channel Islands at least as far back as thirteen thousand years ago. Two human thigh bones found on Santa Rosa Island in 1959 have been conclusively dated to that time period. As of 2024, they were the oldest human remains ever found in North America. A Native American people known as the Chumash lived on the larger islands of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz for thousands of years until the early nineteenth century.

Spanish explorers first landed on the islands in 1542 and claimed them and the Southern California mainland for Spain. In 1821, California became part of Mexico; it was handed over to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). The Channel Islands officially became part of the United States when California was admitted as a state in 1850.

During the nineteenth century, the islands were used by sheep and cattle ranchers and the water around them as a source of fish and other marine animals. In the 1930s, conservationists and biologists began a push to have the islands preserved as a national park. In 1938, President Franklin Roosevelt designated Anacapa and Santa Barbara as the Channel Islands National Monument. At the time, parts of the largest islands were privately owned, making it more difficult to establish a national park. In 1949, monument status was extended to the waters surrounding Anacapa and Santa Barbara islands.

Efforts to create a national park continued throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In 1976, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz islands were included along with Anacapa and Santa Barbara when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated the area a biosphere reserve. In late 1979, the five islands were finally declared a national park by Congress. The legislation was signed by President Jimmy Carter on March 5, 1980. The government arranged to purchase the last private land on Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz from its owners by the 1990s. The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental organization, still owns about 76 percent of Santa Cruz Island but donated use of the land to the National Park Service in 2000.

Geology and Ecology

The Channel Islands were formed about five million years ago by pressure from the collision of two large sections, or plates, of Earth’s crust. The interaction of these plates is the same geologic process that causes earthquakes in California. The plates pushed against each other, compressing and folding the rock, causing the islands to rise from the ocean. During the time of the last ice age, about eleven thousand years ago, the four northernmost islands were part of one large island. When the glaciers melted, the sea levels rose, and the islands were separated.

Santa Barbara Island is the smallest and southernmost island in the park. The island’s coasts consist of sheer, rocky cliffs that make reaching its interior difficult. Anacapa is the second-smallest island and the closest to the mainland, making it the most visited island in the park. Anacapa is treeless, and like Santa Barbara, is surrounded by rocky cliffs. San Miguel is the westernmost and most distant island from the mainland. Its location near the open sea makes it an ideal habitat for marine life. Santa Rosa Island is known for its beaches, grasslands, and steep canyons. It is home to the rare Torrey pine, an endangered species found only on the island and a reserve near San Diego. At about 21 miles (33.8 kilometers) long, Santa Cruz Island is the largest in the park. Its coastline combines sandy beaches, windy cliffs, and sea caves. Its interior consists of grassland, scrub vegetation, and oak and pine woodlands.

The waters around the islands contain almost a thousand species of marine life, ranging from large kelp forests to sea lions and blue whales. The park is also home to the only nesting colony of northern fur seals outside of Alaska. Similar to the Galápagos Islands, the isolated ecosystem of the Channel Islands National Park has allowed its plant and animal life to evolve with minimal outside influences. Among the land-based species found on the islands, about seventy types of plants grow only in the national park. Some of those species are unique to a particular island.

Eleven species of land birds are also found only on the park’s islands, as are about twenty-three land-based mammals. Two of the most notable are species of deer mice and island foxes. The mice and foxes living on different islands have each evolved into their own distinct subspecies. Other birds and animals found on the islands include bald eagles, gulls, bats, spotted skunks, lizards, snakes, and salamanders.

Bibliography

Amandolare, Sarah. “A Guide to Visiting California’s Channel Islands.” Travel + Leisure, 5 Nov. 2022, www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/nature-travel/channel-islands-california-guide. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Close to the California Mainland ...Yet Worlds Apart.” National Park Service, 17 Mar. 2023, www.nps.gov/chis/index.htm. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

Daily, Marla. The California Channel Islands. Arcadia Publishing, 2012.

“Dive into the Watery Remains of Shipwrecks at This National Park.” National Geographic, 2 May 2023, www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/channel-islands-national-park/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Establishing Channel Islands National Park.” National Park Service, 10 June 2016, www.nps.gov/chis/learn/historyculture/park-history.htm. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Treasured Islands.” National Park Foundation, www.nationalparks.org/explore-parks/channel-islands-national-park. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.