Endangered Plants of Channel Islands National Park

 

Native Californian and botanist Ken Niessen has deep knowledge of Southern California’s native plants. For the past 22 years, he’s concentrated on bringing back the federally endangered plant species in the Channel Islands National Park. He currently works as a botanist for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, lives in the Ojai area, and in his free time, can often be found camping offroad in the deserts of Southern California and Baja.    

The California Channel Islands, including what is now Channel Islands National Park, were ranched for about 150 years, ending about 15 years ago when the last feral animals were removed. Since the removals started, there has been dramatic recovery of native vegetation on the islands, and we were recently able to get two of the endangered plants off the federal endangered species list. These successful efforts were helped by advances in technology. There are a few more plants that are almost ready to be delisted, but there are also several that are not doing well.

 

Ken will be talking about the biology of these plants, why the different responses to recovery, and what the future holds for them.