Channel Islands -Santa Cruz

Today , we went out to the Channel Islands by boat.  The first day, we went to Santa Cruz.  The boating experience was new to Megan and a little rough the first day, so she was a bit  scared.  The boat rocked a lot in the waves as it was going pretty fast.  She held onto us.  On the way down , we saw dolphins.  This was exciting as it was new.  After we reached the island, we sat on a bench awaiting the trail guide and there was farming equipment all around and she explained there was a farming community on Santa Cruz (1880s) .   This was the Justinian Caire Era.   Getting equipment to the island was difficult.   The trail guide also told us how the islands came to be, that the Pacific Ocean plate pulled away from the North American Plate. We will look more into this later.  On her hike, we learned about the native or endemic plants on the island, such as island morning glory.   We were able to see the island fox.we also played a predator -prey game where we learned about a sequence of events that shaped the island.  The island was used for farming and so their were feral pigs and cattle on the island. The pigs dug everything up, tearing up the island.  The cattle over grazed,eating all the island's native grasses.  Then, the Golden eagle, attracted by the pigs, came to the island.   These eagles are huge with a large wingspan. Because of this new predator and the lack of tall grasses in which to hide, the fox numbers went down. They have since removed all the problems, the golden eagle, the pigs and the cattle, often by in humane methods.