Submitted By Cathy Garnica

On Wednesday, April 19, 34 Piru School fourth graders and their adult chaperones traveled to the Santa Cruz Island Academy on the largest island of the Channel Islands National Park. The trip was made possible by the “Every Kid in a Park” National Park Foundation Grant. Piru Elementary School was only one of three schools in the county invited to participate in the program after receiving the grant, which the school qualified for when fourth grade teachers took part in the Hollings Grant and MERITO training at the Channel Islands National Park center in Ventura last November.

The trip began early as the Piru students took a bus to the Ventura Harbor and climbed the Island Packers catamaran, taking more than an hour to arrive at the Scorpion Anchorage 20 miles from Ventura but actually located in Santa Barbara County. Fourth-graders from Debra Louth and Delia Silva’s classes had never been on a boat before but managed to avoid seasickness by following the advice of National Park Service Ranger Monique Navarro to “walk out on deck and look out at the horizon.”

Once on the island and the students began walking on the main trail, a small Island fox, the largest mammal on Santa Cruz Island – no bigger than a house cat -- sniffed the ground and peeked out from under a picnic bench at the group of children and adults eagerly snapping photos near the entrance of Scorpion Ranch before trotting away into the brushy hillside.

It was the first of many sightings of the fox – who lives only on six of the eight Channel Islands – San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, San Catalina, San Nicholas and San Clemente -- off the California coast. During the daylong Channel Islands National Park Service-sponsored trip to lush Santa Cruz Island, the Piru Elementary fourth graders and their chaperones enjoyed a full day of hiking, identifying unique plant life and observing the rare fox as they learned first-hand about how unique flora and fauna have managed to survive in the vast Pacific Ocean. More than 2,000 plant and animal species live on the Channel Islands, with about 145 found nowhere else in the world.

The students pulled out their field guide notebooks and began documenting their observations of the sea lions, the island scrub-jay, insects, and especially the elusive fox, who welcomed them within minutes of arriving on Santa Cruz, California’s largest island. Trekking more than a mile on a rocky trail towards the top of the island, noting succulents like the Giant Coreopsis and clusters of North Island Buckwheat, the students found discarded abalone shell left by the Chumash. At noon the students rested in Delphine’s Grove for lunch, careful to pick up their paper lunch sacks and leave no sign that they had visited the pristine habitat.

A visit to the canyon campgrounds led to more encounters with curious Island Fox as National Park Service rangers made sure the students and other visitors maintained a safe distance. As winds ruffled grassy hillside meadows, the students, teachers and rangers offered ideas about how so many species arrived on Santa Cruz Island. As they wrapped up their visit they viewed remnants of ranching life in the historic Scorpion sheep Ranch, which offered a glimpse of the past complete with ranch house, blacksmith and work barns and vintage farm implements.

Piru students will turn their island observations and photos into an upcoming presentation to the rangers and their families during the May 4 Open House, sharing their observations and field experiences in interactive science notebooks and photo collections.