Local University Supports Research on Santa Rosa Island
Ventura, CA —The new Santa Rosa Island Research Station manager Cause Hanna will outline research plans for California State University, Channel Islands during the From Shore to Sea lecture in April.
The Santa Rosa Island Research Station is a collaborative effort between the university and the National Park Service. It serves researchers, students, faculty members, and the local community to support studies and projects that will expand our knowledge of the natural history, ecology, and human history of the Channel Islands.
The vision is to expose students to real-world resource management issues and encourage them to develop practical interdisciplinary solutions. Currently students are mapping and measuring all of the Torrey Pines on the island in order to provide a baseline and monitor changes. They are already seeing expansion in the grove of trees.
Planned research activities include inventory and monitoring of island flora and fauna, archeological surveys, ecological restoration, and other studies.
Hanna grew up in Ventura County and gained ten years of experience in island ecology and natural resource management in Hawaii. He plans to use that experience to foster the integration of knowledge and perspectives across disciplines in conducting resource-based research on the Channel Islands. Hanna earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of California, San Diego and his PhD in environmental science at the University of California, Berkeley.
The talk will be held on April 9, 2014. The From Shore to Sea lecture series is sponsored by Channel Islands National Park to further the understanding of current research on the Channel Islands and surrounding marine waters. The lectures occur at 7:00 pm on the second Wednesday of March, April, May, September, October, and November at the Channel Islands National Park Robert J. Lagomarsino Visitor Center, 1901 Spinnaker Drive in Ventura Harbor. The programs are free and open to the public.
About CSU Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands (CI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural, and international perspectives and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. For more information visit www.csuci.edu.
About Santa Rosa Island
Santa Rosa Island, the second-largest island within Channel Islands National Park, boasts 55 miles of coastline supporting a diverse web of marine life. Its 53,000 acres are home to more than 100 bird species, 500 plant species, many endemic species found nowhere else in the world, and numerous significant and federally protected archeological sites offering a 13,000-year record of human occupation, including the earliest-known human remains in North America. For more information visit www.nps.gov/chis.
