Restoring Habitat for Seabirds on the Channel Islands

Date: August 5, 2010
Contact: Yvonne Menard, 805-658-5725

The Channel Islands provide essential nesting and feeding grounds for approximately 99 percent of seabirds that nest in southern California. Restoring critical seabird habitat on the Channel Islands is the featured topic for the August “From Shore to Sea” lecture by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) biologist Annie Little.

Little will review the goals and status of three seabird restoration projects that are underway on Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz Islands. These restoration efforts involve improving nesting habitat, enhancing breeding populations with social attraction, and monitoring in order to benefit several seabird species. Little will also provide a glimpse into the lives of the elusive and rare seabirds such as the Xantus’s murrelet, ashy storm-petrel, and Cassin’s auklet that call the Channel Islands home.

These seabird restoration projects are funded by a federal and state partnership dedicated to restoring natural resources harmed by DDTs and PCBs released into the marine environment.

Little, who has worked for USFWS since 1996, also serves as the lead bird biologist for MSRP.
In addition to working extensively on the Channel Islands, she has done fieldwork in other remote places, including Ecuador and the subantarctic island of Crozet. She has a biology degree from the University of California, San Diego.

The “From Shore to Sea” lecture series is jointly sponsored by Channel Islands National Park and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary with support from Santa Barbara Maritime Museum. The purpose of the series is to further the understanding of current research on the Channel Islands and surrounding waters. The lectures occur at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 10, 2010, at Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, 113 Harbor Way in the Santa Barbara Harbor and Wednesday, August 11, 2010, at the Channel Islands National Park Robert J. Lagomarsino Visitor Center, 1901 Spinnaker Drive in the Ventura Harbor. The programs are free and open to the public.