The Channel Islands, off the coast of Southern California, turn out to be shockingly big and wild and, with the exception of Catalina, undeveloped. Nonetheless some of the best lands, such as Santa Cruz Island, have been ravaged by decades of ranching — 100,000 sheep at one point. But in the last twenty years, under the careful stewardship of The Nature Conservancy and the National Parks Service, the wild foxes and oaks and other native species have begun to return, as shown in a nice long piece by Jon Krist of the Ventura County Star. He spent two days exploring the island with the land manager: I’m jealous!
Here’s a picture of a fragmant of the Santa Cruz island coastline from boompomdoink. It’s not the most spectacular choice, but it will give some concept, I hope, of the enormity of the place.
Kit Stolz 