0:58 Out on the horizon,
1:00 a distant world shimmers.
1:08 Five islands and the seas around them.
1:13 A wilderness protected by wind and waves.
1:21 It is a place of solitude and adventure.
1:32 A glimpse of what California used to be.
1:39 Out past the edge of the continent,
1:41 out on the edge of the imagination, this lost world beckons.
2:08 Off the coast of southern California lie a group of islands cloaked in mist.
2:13 Channel Islands National Park.
2:16 It's just a short boat ride from one of the most populated regions on Earth.
2:20 But few travel here, out where the mainland ends.
2:25 Those who do
2:26 find a remarkable refuge. Half land,
2:30 half water.
2:32 Isolated, but overflowing with life.
2:39 Five islands and the sea that guards them.
2:45 Anacapa,
2:47 jutting out of the sea. Craggy and volcanic
2:55 with its iconic Arch Rock,
2:58 the historic lighthouse,
3:03 and wildflowers that bring the rocky soil to life.
3:12 Santa Cruz,
3:13 the largest and most of diverse of them all. A rough, mountainous island cut by a massive fault line.
3:23 Home to nearly 60 plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth.
3:28 And for the many visitors who come from the mainland,
3:31 it is an island playground.
3:40 Santa Rosa,
3:44 a landscape that rolls from the mountains to the marshes,
3:48 sheltering rare Torrey Pines,
3:51 weathered sandstone canyons,
3:54 and vestiges of a ranching past.
4:05 San Miguel,
4:06 an island of extremes.
4:11 Wild, windy, and remote,
4:13 where isolated beaches protect one of the largest rookeriess
4:16 of seals and sea lions in the world.
4:19 And ancient dunes reveal the caliche forest,
4:23 fossilized trees from long ago.
4:33 Santa Barbara, the tiny tableland.
4:42 A mesa framed by twin peaks, and steep rock faces.
4:49 Where stunning wildflowers and nesting seabirds draw the occasional visitor from the distant mainland.
4:57 And all around,
4:58 an underwater national park.
5:01 A mile of sea on the fringes of the land.
5:07 One of the planet's great marine ecosystems,
5:11 flowing with life.
5:39 Harsh and lonely.
5:42 There is nothing easy about life on these islands,
5:46 yet people have been drawn here for over 13,000 years.
5:51 Some of the oldest human remains known in North America
5:54 were discovered here.
5:58 The native Chumash people were one of the
6:00 most advanced societies of their time.
6:06 They developed a complex society,
6:10 trading with the mainland in plank canoes, and using shell beads for money.
6:17 For thousands of years, they flourished.
6:20 Then, in 1542, the Spaniards arrived
6:24 led by explorer
6:25 Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo.
6:28 But the meeting of European
6:29 and native cultures
6:30 would be tragic.
6:32 The Chumash were exposed to new diseases, like the measles and smallpox ,
6:37 that devastated their populations.
6:40 By the mid- 1800s, the Chumash were forced from their island homes
6:44 and into missions along the coast.
6:48 Despite these hardships,
6:49 the Chumash people have never given up their connection to this island homeland.
6:55 In time, others would come,
6:57 drawn by the rich resources:
6:59 Otter hunters, fishermen,
7:02 sheep and cattle ranchers.
7:07 Some manned the islands as military outposts.
7:13 Others ran the beacons to guide vessels through hazardous seas.
7:19 Over the years, the reasons for valuing these islands changed.
7:24 A new approach to stewardship would emerge,
7:27 to restore and protect them,
7:30 creating a national park,
7:32 an international biosphere reserve,
7:35 and a national marine sanctuary.
7:38 A place of research and recreation,
7:41 attracting a new type of traveler.
8:03 It's only an hour from the freeways of southern California,
8:08 but when visitors arrive, they can tell
8:10 this is a different world.
8:14 Millions of people may live less than a hundred miles away,
8:17 but here, you are alone.
8:23 This craggy coastline offers a chance to experience the land the way it once was.
8:29 The original California.
8:37 Female hiker : "Our family goes camping on the
8:38 Channel Islands
8:40 to get away from it all.
8:43 There's just something about this place. It feels so wild, so remote,
8:51 like you're in your own world."
8:55 Narrator: This is the rugged charm of these lonely islands.
8:59 The vistas to be discovered,
9:03 the journeys waiting to be undertaken.
9:08 It's a place of jagged beauty
9:13 where calm restores the spirit.
9:17 A quiet corner of the world.
9:42 Despite their closeness to the coast,
9:44 these islands have never been connected to the mainland.
9:48 This isolation has fostered the development of plants and animals that
9:51 exist nowhere else on the planet.
9:56 Nearly 150 unique species of flora and fauna.
10:02 Like the island fox,
10:04 one of the rarest mammals in North America.
10:09 The Torrey pines and the island oak,
10:12 some of the most distinctive trees in the world.
10:16 And the island scrub-jay,
10:18 found only on Santa Cruz Island.
10:23 These isolated Channel
10:24 Islands have been their refuge,
10:27 with miles of ocean to protect them,
10:30 strong winds and rough seas to shield them.
10:52 It starts in the waves themselves,
10:54 a rich web of life that reaches up from the sea.
10:58 Here, the cold currents of the north Pacific collide with
11:01 the warm waters of the south,
11:04 and combined with a great upwelling of nutrients from the ocean floor.
11:09 A living soup develops that supports more than 2,000 species
11:13 from tiny plankton,
11:15 to giant whales.
11:27 It's one of the most diverse marine environments on Earth.
11:51 No wonder divers and swimmers from all over the world come here.
11:56 It's like swimming in a great aquarium.
12:11 Others come looking for adventure along the coast,
12:14 to explore some of the largest sea caves on Earth,
12:17 the rock cathedrals,
12:19 where the ceilings soar.
12:23 Kayaker: "They call this the Painted Cave .
12:26 It's here on the edge of Santa Cruz Island.
12:31 It's an incredible setting.
12:34 Paddling through the water here lets me experience
12:37 the park in a completely different way.
12:39 I become immersed in the sea,
12:42 intimate with the coastline and the marine life."
12:53 Narrator: Life flourishes at the boundary between land and sea,
12:57 where tidepools
12:57 support a rich tapestry of life.
13:02 It's a place between two worlds, half land, half liquid,
13:08 battered by the waves
13:12 and baked by the sun. It's a world of extremes.
13:21 And those who come to visit find an entire universe at their feet.
13:43 This land -sea connection provides a refuge for birds as well.
13:47 They arrive in large numbers,
13:49 drawn by the isolation,
13:51 the lack of predators, and the food.
13:55 For thousands of sea birds traveling the Pacific,
13:58 these little pieces of land are key for survival.
14:02 Year after year, they come to breed,
14:05 to nest in secluded rookeries.
14:08 Pelicans and cormorants,
14:12 oystercatchers and western gulls.
14:16 This abundance of wildlife doesn't just make these islands an enjoyable place to visit.
14:21 For scientists,
14:22 it's a living laboratory,
14:24 a place to see how a small fragile pool species
14:28 can change and adapt.
14:30 And in this laboratory,
14:32 research is under way
14:34 in the giant kelp forest.
14:38 This is not just any seaweed.
14:41 This is a great rainforest beneath the waves.
14:45 Giant kelp is one of the fastest growing plants on Earth,
14:49 growing up to two feet a day.
14:54 Below the surface, light plays through these great strands like shafts of sunlight through stained glass.
15:01 But a quiet crisis is brewing here.
15:05 Many of the magnificent animals in the kelp forest
15:07 have disappeared, as a result of overfishing
15:10 and a changing environment.
15:13 Since the 1980s, teams of researchers have been diving here
15:16 to monitor the undersea life
15:18 and track exactly how it's doing.
15:23 Female Scientist: "Some creatures, like the abalone, were prevalent just a few decades ago.
15:27 but now, they're rare.
15:29 That's why this work is so important. To protect the ecosystem, you have
15:33 pay attention. You have to know its health.
15:36 That's why we're so committed to this work."
15:42 Narrator: This is all part of the longest running monitoring program in the national parks,
15:47 the model many others are based on.
15:50 Because this data is so extensive,
15:53 it was used to help establish marine reserves,
15:56 underwater refuges closed to fishing.
15:59 And the results are encouraging. There are now more fish, and bigger fish,
16:04 in these reserves.
16:06 For all the changes these submarine forests continue to harbor
16:10 a remarkable range of underwater life,
16:13 nearly a thousand species of plants and animals.
16:22 Scientists have also been documenting an amazing story of recovery and renewal
16:26 in one of the most isolated regions of the park.
16:30 San Miguel Island.
16:32 It is something that could have only occurred in a place as remote
16:35 and protected as this.
16:38 It was here that the northern elephant seal was hunted
16:42 to near extinction less than a century ago.
16:45 Today, however, things are different.
16:51 It is one of the world's great wildlife displays.
16:54 Tens of thousands of seals and sea lions are coming ashore, as they do each year.
17:00 The world's largest congregation of northern elephant seals, northern fur seals, harbor seals, and California sea lions all haul up on these sandy beaches to breed, pup, and molt.
17:17 Scientists will occasionally venture into the rookery to study their behavior
17:21 and monitor their health.
17:26 Scientist: "It's been pretty awesome
17:27 to witness this steady population increase for three decades.
17:41 It's a fairly uplifting thing because we've
17:43 also been studying other animals
17:45 that have been added to the endangered species list.
17:48 So it's been pretty wonderful to watch this.
17:53 Narrator: There aren't many places left in North America like this,
17:56 places secluded and inaccessible,
17:59 places that these animals can call home.
18:03 Scientist: "There's been a tremendous value of having
18:06 these islands protected,
18:08 remote, even though we've got fifteen million people less
18:12 than a hundred miles away.
18:13 The fact that these habitats were here
18:15 is the key factor
18:18 in their population success and recovery."
18:36 Narrator: Our national parks protect places like the Channel Islands,
18:40 offering a new approach to managing this fragile ecosystem,
18:44 one that is still recovering
18:45 from the unintended consequences of an earlier era.
18:50 Like the introduction of non-native animals,
18:52 which altered the islands,
18:54 devastating native plants and animals.
18:58 Over time, these non-native species have been removed,
19:02 and in just a few decades,
19:04 the islands have begun to turn a corner.
19:08 Signs of recovery can be seen
19:10 on islands from Santa Barbara to San Miguel.
19:15 Two of the great success stories are the recovery of island foxes
19:18 and bald eagles.
19:21 Not long ago, the island fox was on the brink of extinction,
19:26 with only 14 left on Santa Rosa,
19:27 and 15 on San Miguel.
19:30 And bald eagles had disappeared from the Channel Islands altogether.
19:35 Then a program to re-establish both species gradually rebuilt their populations.
19:41 Now both species are back from the edge of extinction
19:44 and out in the wild again. And they are not alone.
19:50 The once endangered northern elephant seals, California brown pelicans, peregrine falcons,
19:58 and island plant communities are all recovering
20:00 in this protected habitat as well.
20:04 The National Park Service is also studying and preserving important vestiges of our past,
20:08 to provide a greater understanding
20:11 of how people have adapted to these islands
20:13 for over 13,000 years.
20:17 From the long and unique tradition of island ranching,
20:20 to the shipwrecks
20:21 that reveal a maritime heritage,
20:24 to the earliest traces of the first island people.
20:27 All are preserved by this national park.
20:32 And today, those who trace their heritage to the islands
20:36 20:37 still feel the pull of this place.
20:39 Native Chumash Woman: "Our ancestors came from these islands,
20:42 and each time we come back, we can feel their presence here.
20:46 We walk in their same footsteps through this unspoiled natural landscape.
20:52 It's wonderful to know that our children will be able to come back
20:56 and know the beauty and significance of this place."
21:23 Narrator: And so today, the Channel Islands beckon us.
21:28 175 miles of untouched coastline.
21:34 The opportunity to see a vibrant world
21:36 teeming with life.
21:40 To make sure it stays that way
21:42 is a mission that continues.
21:45 To hold this land in trust for the generations to follow.
21:50 This is the calling of Channel Islands National Park.
21:59 For all, a place to study and cherish,
22:02 a place to experience and enjoy,
22:05 a place to conserve.
22:08 Out past the edge of the continent, it waits,
22:11 guarded by the wind and the waves,
22:14 this island world, a wilderness shimmering on the horizon.