Sign: Restoring a Rare Treasure

Sign: Restoring a Rare Treasure

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The National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy are restoring the largest coastal wetland on the Channel Islands.

Coastal wetlands in California are increasingly rare-over 90 percent have been eliminated. Prior to alterations in the late 1800s, the Prisoners Harbor wetland provided a variety of habitats (open water, marsh, riparian, and woodland) for native plants and wildlife. Island ranchers reduced this wetland habitat by more than 50 percent when they filled it with gravel, rerouted and channelized the creek, and planted eucalyptus and other nonnative trees and plants.
Ecosystem function has been restored to a portion of the Prisoners Harbor wetland and about one mile of the lower Cañada del Puerto stream.
The process of reviving the wetland's natural function and ecology on nearly 50 acres of land began in 2011. Thousands of cubic yards of fill were excavated and the landscape was reshaped to allow the wetland to flood naturally. In addition, nonnative trees and plants were removed and replaced with native vegetation. The return of the wetland not only increases the diversity and abundance of plants and animals, it also helps protect archeological resources and historic structures from erosion and flooding and provides visitors the opportunity to experience, enjoy, and learn about a natural wetland ecosystem.