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Santa Cruz Island

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For Santa Cruz Island of the Galápagos Islands, see Santa Cruz Island (Galápagos)

NASA satellite image of Santa Cruz Island.

Santa Cruz Island is the largest privately owned island off the continental United States. The island, located off the coast of California, is 22 miles (35 km) long and from 2 to 6 miles (3 to 10 km) wide. It is part of the northern group of the Channel Islands of California, and at 61,764.6 acres (249.95 km² or 96.507 sq mi) is the largest of the eight islands in the chain. Santa Cruz Island is located within Santa Barbara County. The coastline has steep cliffs, gigantic sea caves, coves, and sandy beaches. Defined by the United States Census Bureau as Block 3000, Block Group 3, Census Tract 29.10 of Santa Barbara County, California, the 2000 census showed an official population of 2 persons. ^[1] Highest peak is Devils Peak, at 2450+ feet (747+ m). A central valley splits the island along the Santa Cruz Island Fault, with volcanic rock on the north and older sedimentary rock on the south. In 1978, The Nature Conservancy paid over $2.5 million to protect the western 90 percent of Santa Cruz Island. The deal prevented subdivision and development but permitted the key seller, Dr. Carey Stanton, to continue the existing cattle ranching operation. Following Stanton's death in 1987, ownership of the property passed to the Conservancy, grazing ceased, and the cattle were removed. The National Park Service began to purchase the remaining eastern tenth of the island, for addition to the Channel Islands National Park, in the 1980s and completed the process in 1997. In August 2000, the Conservancy donated 8,500 adjacent acres to the Park Service to be added to National Park territory. Santa Cruz is the only place where the endemic Island Scrub Jay is found.

1 Wildlife
2 Reintroduced Bald Eagles
3 External links
4 References

Wildlife

Introduced and invasive species on Santa Cruz Island include:

Golden Eagle (invader), which replaced the native bald eagle, and hunted island foxes to threatened status.
Fennel (introduced), served as cover for Island Foxes, but as forage for the feral pigs.
Feral Pigs (introduced), displaced native island foxes.

Reintroduced Bald Eagles

Bald Eagles were once numerous on California's Channel Islands. Because of eggshell thinning caused by DDT and other factors, the last known successful Bald Eagle nesting in the northern Channel Islands was in 1949. By the 1960s Bald Eagles could no longer be found on any of the Channel Islands. The Institute for Wildlife Studies started a program in 2002 to reintroduce Bald Eagles to the Channel Islands, funded by money from a $25 million fund to deal with the lingering effects of tons of DDT dumped by the Montrose Chemical Corporation into the ocean near Santa Catalina Island. Since June 2002 46 young bald eagles have been released on Santa Cruz Island. On 17 March 2006 wildlife biologists for the Institute announced that for the first time in over 50 years there has been a successful hatching on Santa Cruz Island. ^[2]^[3]^[4] In April 2007, the Nature Conservancy announced another successful chick hatching^[5].The chick broke free of its shell on April 13, 2007. The parents were one of the two nesting pairs who had returned to the island after making history last year. Both pairs were born in captivity. This second birth represents a turning point in the struggle to return the eagles to their former habitat on the island.