Restoring Bird Habitat on the Channel Islands

Date: June 17, 2016
Contact: Yvonne Menard, 805-658-5725

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wildlife biologist Annie Little will describe the work that has been done since 2002 to help populations of birds on the Channel Islands recover from loss of habitat and the adverse effects of the pesticide DDT, during the July From Shore to Sea lecture.

DDT was a pesticide discharged into the ocean that worked its way up the food chain and eventually accumulated in birds, like seabirds, falcons, and eagles. The DDT caused their eggshells to be too thin to withstand incubation in the nest, and populations of these birds declined. The bald eagle disappeared from the islands altogether by the 1960s due to human impacts, primarily pollution.

Little will describe the various restoration efforts that Montrose Settlements Restoration Program (MSRP) has created to help these populations, including the bald eagle reintroduction program, habitat restoration and social attraction for seabirds on Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara Islands, feral cat removal on San Nicolas Island, and seabird restoration on the Baja California Pacific Islands.

Little has worked as a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the past 20 years, working on endangered species conservation and serving as the lead avian biologist for MSRP. In the latter role, she oversees the implementation of multiple bird restoration projects on the California Islands. She graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a B.S. in Biology. Little has been fortunate to do fieldwork in remote places of the world, including Ecuador and the sub Antarctic island of Crozet, and the Channel Islands.

The talk will be held on Thursday, July 14, 2016. The From Shore to Sea lecture series is sponsored by Channel Islands National Park to further the understanding of current research on the Channel Islands and surrounding marine waters. The 2016 lecture series will take place at 7:00 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month, January through December, at the Channel Islands National Park Robert J. Lagomarsino Visitor Center, 1901 Spinnaker Drive in Ventura Harbor. This extended schedule is in honor of the National Park Service's milestone centennial anniversary, which celebrates 100 years of national parks. The programs are free and open to the public.

This lecture can also be viewed live online at: https://www.nps.gov/chis/planyourvisit/live-programs.htm.

Lectures are recorded and posted at: https://www.nps.gov/chis/learn/photosmultimedia/from-shore-to-sea-lecture-videos.htm