The plants and animals you see on the Channel Islands now may be quite different than what once lived here. The vegetation on every island is in the process of recovering from grazing, farming, military use, and the introduction of exotic species. The paleontological record also shows that there were species that once lived on the islands like the pygmy mammoth and the giant deer mouse, which are now extinct. The National Park Service and its partners have undertaken a number of research and monitoring efforts to learn more about the park's terrestrial resources. The Inventory & Monitoring Program has a number of on-going projects, including surveys of native and non-native plants, and monitoring to understand how landscape patterns are changing over time. The U.S. Geological Survey has also been working with the park on vegetation, landbirds and small mammal monitoring and trend analysis. |
Last updated: November 7, 2019