Channel Islands of California Totally Explained

Everything about The Channel Islands Of California totally explained

The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America. Five of islands are part of the Channel Islands National Park.

Island	Area mi²	Area km²	Population Census 2000	County	ighest peak feet (m)
The eight Channel Islands of California, off the west coast of North America
Northern islands
Anacapa	1.14	2.95	3	Ventura	Summit Peak 2, 930 (283)
San Miguel	14.57	37.74	-	Santa Barbara	San Miguel Hill, 831 (253)
Santa Cruz	96.51	249.95	2	Santa Barbara	Devils Peak, 2450+ (747+)
Santa Rosa	83.12	215.27	2	Santa Barbara	Soledad Peak, 1589 (484)
Southern islands
San Clemente	56.81	147.13	300¹⁾	Los Angeles	Vista Point, 1965 (599)
San Nicolas	22.75	58.93	200¹⁾	Ventura	unnamed, 907 (276)
Santa Barbara	1.02	2.63	-	Santa Barbara	Signal Hill, 634 (193)
Santa Catalina	74.98	194.19	3696	Los Angeles	Mount Orizaba, 2123 (648)
Channel Islands	350.89	908.79	3703		Devils Peak, 2450+ (747+)
¹⁾Navy installations, itinerant military and civilian population

California counties: Santa Barbara County (four), Ventura County (two) and Los Angeles County (two). The islands are divided into two groups, the Northern Channel Islands and the Southern Channel Islands. The four Northern Islands used to be a single landmass known as Santa Rosae.
   The archipelago extends for 160 miles (257.5 kilometers) between San Miguel Island in the north and San Clemente Island in the south. Together, the islands’ land area totals 221,331 acres, or about 346 square miles.
   Five of the islands (San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, and Santa Barbara) were made into the Channel Islands National Park in 1980. The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary encompasses the waters six nautical miles (11 kilometers) off Anacapa, Santa Cruz, San Miguel and Santa Barbara Islands. Santa Catalina Island is the only one of the eight islands with a significant permanent civilian settlement—the resort city of Avalon, California, and the unincorporated town of Two Harbors.
   The Channel Islands at low elevations are virtually frost-free and constitute one of the few such areas in the 48 contiguous US states. It never snows except rarely on higher tops of mountains.

Military use

The United States Navy completely controls San Nicolas Island and San Clemente Island and has installations elsewhere in the chain. During World War II all of Southern California’s Channel Islands were put under complete military control—including the civilian-populated Santa Catalina where tourism was halted and established residents needed permits to travel to and from the mainland.San Miguel Island was used as a bombing range and Santa Barbara Island as an early warning outpost under the presumed threat of a Japanese attack on California.
Legislation is now being proposed in the United States House of Representatives that would make Santa Rosa Island a military resort and training facility. Under the proposal the island would keep its National Park status though public access would be limited.

History

Separated from the California mainland throughout recent geological history, the Channel Islands provide the earliest evidence for human seafaring in the Americas. It is also the site of the discovery of the earliest paleontological evidence of humans in North America The Northern Channel Islands are now known to have been settled by maritime Paleoindian peoples at least 13,000 years ago. Archaeological sites on the island provide a unique and invaluable record of human interaction with Channel Island marine and terrestrial ecosystems from the late Pleistocene to historic times. Historically, the northern islands were occupied by the Island Chumash, while the southern islands were occupied by the Tongva. The Chumash and Tongva were removed from the islands in the early 1800s, taken to Spanish missions and pueblos on the adjacent mainland. For a century, the Channel Islands were used primarily for ranching and fishing activities, which had significant impacts on island ecosystems, including the local extinction of sea otters, bald eagles, and other species. With most of the Channel Islands now managed by federal agencies or conservation groups, the restoration of the island ecosystems has made significant progress.

Wildlife

The Channel Islands are part of one of the richest marine biospheres of the world. Many unique species of plants and animals are endemic to the Channel Islands, including fauna such as the Island Fox, Channel Islands Spotted Skunk, Island Scrub Jay, Ashy Storm-petrel, Island Night Lizard, Channel Island Slender Salamander, San Clemente Goat, Santa Cruz sheep, San Clemente Loggerhead Shrike and flora including unique subspecies of Torrey Pine and Oak and the Island Tree mallow.

Wildlife gallery

Image:0295_aquaimages.jpg|Bluebanded Gobies, San Clemente Island Image:0375_aquaimages.jpg|Garibaldi, Catalina Island Image:3294_aquaimages.jpg|Juvenile Garibaldi, Catalina Island Image:0425_aquaimages.jpg|Diver and juvenile Sea Lion, Anacapa Island Image:2706_aquaimages.jpg|California Moray Eel Image:2728_aquaimages.jpg|Kelp forest and sardines Image:2780_aquaimages.jpg|Giant Black Sea Bass, San Clemente Island Image:2826_aquaimages.jpg|Sea Fan, Anacapa Island Image:3327_aquaimages.jpg|Hermissenda Nudibranch, San Clemente Island Image:5597_aquaimages.jpg|Anemones, Catalina Island Image:5662_aquaimages.jpg|Bat Ray in kelp forest, San Clemente Island Image:5687_aquaimages.jpg|Spanish Shawl nudibranch

Further Information

Get more info on 'Channel Islands Of California'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://channel_islands_of_california.totallyexplained.com">Channel Islands of California Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.