Ecotourism: Tourism involving travel to areas of natural or ecological interest, typically under the guidance of a naturalist, for the purpose of observing wildlife and learning about the environment.
-- Free Online Dictionary
Southern Californians tend to think of Catalina as their personal island playground. As it's a little more than 20 miles off our coast, it's pretty easy to reach - and visitors flock there for outdoor activities like fishing, diving, mountain biking, hiking and parasailing.
We visited Catalina this month with about half a dozen other travel bloggers. One was a fishing enthusiast and Catalina veteran who had friends living on the island. But he was most excited about our visit, because the Catalina Island Conservancy was going to take us past the town of Avalon, into the island's Interior.
No wonder he was so jazzed about our visit. Here is some of what we saw:
The Catalina Island Conservancy
Santa Catalina is a part of the archipelago that makes up California's Channel Islands. Most of the people live in the city of Avalon, with a few hundred more in the unincorporated village of Two Harbors.
Eighty-five percent of the island is controlled by the Conservancy, a legacy of the Wrigley family, whose descendants remain active on the island. The organization's mission is "to be a responsible steward of its lands through a balance of conservation, education and recreation."
They accomplish this through a variety of programs, from issuing permits for bicycling and hiking to conducting tours like the one we enjoyed. They also offer a variety of travel packages that enable visitors to contribute to the island's well-being while enjoying its many recreational attractions.
The Conservancy relies on volunteers, including folks from the mainland, and they offer several eco-touring opportunities. These range from a Jeep tour of the Conservancy land, to a stay at their full-featured Laura Stein Campground, on up to luxury accommodations at the the Hotel Villa Portofino. I was impressed with the options, which all aim to provide visitors the opportunity to give back to the island AND have fun - and at a special price.
Most visitors don't see much of the island outside the two population centers, which is a shame, because they're missing vistas like this one:
Our tour was led by the Conservancy's Chief Communications Officer, Leslie Baer, who is one of the most fascinating people I've ever met. Throughout the day, Leslie exhibited her encyclopedic knowledge of the island, its history, its flora, its fauna and the challenges the organization has to keep the island's habitat in balance.
I learned a lot about animals that are endemic to the Island (meaning that these particular species do not exist anywhere else in the world). One is the Catalina Island Fox, which is about the size of a housecat (some in our group actually spied one that afternoon). We also saw plenty of endemic ground squirrels.
One animal I was happy NOT to come in contact with was a rattlesnake. Leslie warned us that the antivenom typically used doesn't work when you're bit by a Catalina rattler; because of that, some researchers suspect that the snakes on the island are a different species than the ones on the mainland.
As we made our way up the winding road to our first stop, Leslie filled us in on some of the challenges face by the Conservancy. We saw one of the first ones at the side of the road: a deer romping into the brush.
"They're not native to the island," Leslie told us. Back in the 1940's, someone had the bright idea of importing mule deer for hunting. Catalina's famous bison were also imports; left on the island after a movie shoot in the 1920's. At one time, the island was also home to non-native cattle, sheep, goats and feral pigs. All had a devastating effect on the island's natural habitat.
The deer have no natural predators on Catalina and have an appetite for the plants that ARE native - so the population grew out of control while devouring much of the vegetation the Conservancy is trying to protect.
The result is that in addition to the Conservancy's ongoing preservation efforts, they find themselves administering a hunting program to manage the deer population.
The Conservancy had a similar problem handling the population of the island's famous herds of bison, which had grown so large that their sheer numbers were unhealthy for the animals themselves. In 2003, the Conservancy negotiated a deal with three Native American tribes to transport 103 of the animals back to their ancestral grounds in South Dakota. And today, they use contraceptives to keep the animal population in control.
We stopped at a hilltop garden, where the Conservancy is trying to re-establish endemic plants that have been threatened by non-native vegetation that has taken root over the last couple of centuries. The hillside we were on had been ravaged in 2007 by a fire that scorched 4,000 acres and forced evacuations from the island's tiny towns.
The garden was surrounded by wire fencing, as were several of the young plants taking root. "One of our volunteer activities is fence walking," explained Leslie, who pointed to a spot that had obviously taken a beating, probably from one of the bison. The walkers inspect and repair fence damage like the one we saw up there.
That sounds like relatively easy volunteer work - and rather pleasant on a gorgeous day like the one we experienced... but some of the terrain you'd be walking is a little steep, and I have a bad fear of heights. More my speed (and appropriate for families with children) is working in the nursery, where endemic plants are being grown by seed and nurtured to the point where they can be transplanted elsewhere.
The Native Plant Nursery
The nursery is located in a relatively flat region of the island known as Middle Ranch, which was indeed home to ranchers before the establishment of the Conservancy. This is where botanists and horticulture experts are growing the material that is being used to restore the island's natural vegetation. They operate their own seed bank
They also sell plants to island residents for their personal landscaping needs.
Our visit was on a Thursday morning, which is when the nursery opens to volunteers (7:30 AM to 12:00 PM). It was cool to see parents and kids working together on projects like seed germination, collection and weeding. (The folks at the Conservancy said that they will work with anyone who wants to volunteer as a family, and may even be able to come up with custom activities just for you. All it takes is a phone call to their Volunteer department: (310) 510-1445 .)
The Airport In the Sky
We had lunch at DC3, the restaurant at Catalina's picturesque Airport In the Sky (so named because its tiny runway is located at the top of a 1600-foot mountain).
Leslie told us that it's not unusual to see celebrities at the airport; a popular destination for pilots, who come for the restaurant's famous $100 bison burger (so named because that's what it will cost you to fly there and back in a private plane).
We didn't see anyone famous, but my husband did try the burger (bison is low in cholesterol and leaner than poultry) and gave it a big thumbs up. Leslie was quick to let us know that the burger meat comes from the mainland; there is no hunting or slaughtering of bison on Catalina Island.
Great Hiking and Other Activities
Catalina Island boasts over 200 miles of hiking trails, covering everything from easy, flat strolling on up to steep hillside terrain. We had planned to work off the calories we consumed at lunch on the 2.3 mile Airport Loop Trail - but time was running short, so we were only able to get a taste of this easy circle off the airport.
On our way back to Avalon, we spied the island's latest hot attraction: The 3,671 foot ZipLine, which is currently the only one operating anywhere in Los Angeles or Orange County. This looks like it would be a lot of fun (uh, for people who don't suffer from acrophobia) and has been a wild success since it opened last year. Reservations are required for the $99, two-hour trip.
The Villa Volunteer Package
We finished our tour of the Interior inspired to come back and get our fingers dirty at the nursery, and were pleased to learn that we can do so economically at the beautiful hotel that hosted us on our visit.
The Villa Portofino Hotel is offering a special Volunteer package, which includes island transport via the Catalina Express, continental breakast and lunch at the DC-3 Restaurant after your volunteer stint at the nursery. You have the option of returning to Avalon on the 1:30pm shuttle or you can hike the Airport Loop Trail and take the 3:30pm shuttle back to town - all or just $92 per person.
You can get information on other available Volunteer Vacations on the Conservancy website here.
Disclosure: My husband and I visited Santa Catalina Island as guests of the Hotel Villa Portofino, the Catalina Express and the Catalina Island Conservancy. I received no compensation for this post. Opinions expressed on my blog are my own.
This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I love seeing websites that understand the value of providing a quality resource for free. It's the old what goes around comes around routine.
Posted by: Surf camp costa rica | March 07, 2011 at 08:24 AM