Celebrating Conservation Successes

While Fighting for Our Future, it’s Heartening to Remember Conservation Victories of the Past, Especially the Animals We’ve Saved

No longer endangered, gray whales, like this mother and calf, are often seen in the Santa Barbara channel during their migration. | Credit: Courtesy of NOAA Fisheries

This story originally appeared in the Santa Barbara Green Guide 2025/26,
a collaboration publication between ‘Santa Barbara Independent’ and ‘Bluedot Living‘.

Though the “environmental movement” is polluted with an excess of bad news, we have faced great challenges and solved them. Acid rain? Fixed. The hole in the ozone layer? Healing. The blanket of thick smog that choked Southern California for decades? Mostly gone. If we set our collective minds to a problem, it gets solved.

Every crisis you can think of has an army of brilliant minds working on it at this very moment. For example, while many species around the world are endangered, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is one of the most powerful statutes the environmental movement has passed. Signed by President Nixon in 1973, the act protects roughly 1,800 U.S. species, only 32 of which have gone extinct, mostly freshwater shellfish and birds that had tiny ranges and small populations. And about 60 species have recovered enough to be “delisted.”

Within that number of recovered animals and plants are some terrific success stories. Here are a few that call Santa Barbara home.

**Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)**

Bald eagles, year-round residents at Lake Cachuma, are powerful symbols of both our country and of our ability to protect endangered animals. | Credit: Hugh Ranson

Delisted in 2007, the bald eagle is a powerful symbol of conservation success, and the banning of DDT was actually a primary factor in the recovery of this fish-hunting raptor found in every continental U.S. state and Alaska. DDT, a potent pesticide hailed as a miracle in its ability to eradicate illness-causing mosquitoes, accumulates in the bodies of animals high on the food chain. In the case of birds of prey, DDT thins the eggshells, making eggs unviable. DDT began to come under health and environmental scrutiny in the 1950s that was only heightened by the 1962 publication of Silent Spring, Rachel Carson’s brutal expose on the pesticide and the lies of the chemical industry.

Efforts to protect the bald eagle go back as far as the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940. But by the 1950s, only about 400 breeding pairs were thought to be in the lower 48 states. That number is now well over 70,000. Once frequently shot as a pest and predator (it was claimed they would even snatch children, though no incidents of this have ever been recorded), bald eagles still often suffer from lead poisoning as they ingest lead from the carcassed and discarded entrails of game animals shot with lead ammunition (hunting with lead ammunition was banned in California in 2019, though it is legal in most other places). Lead ingestion is also the major threat to the still-highly-endangered California condor.

Bald eagles are often spotted in Santa Barbara County, mostly in winter near bodies of water, and they also breed here. They were even imported to the Channel Islands to help drive out golden eagles that were preying on island foxes (see below).

**Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)**

The first animal to be de-listed, in 1985 (though not delisted in California until 2009), the brown pelican is a wide-ranging coast-dwelling bird that nests in colonies in secluded dunes and mangroves. Their ground nests and eggs are easily subject to predation by a variety of critters; though adult pelicans are large and rarely predated, they have been known to be chomped by large sharks and attacked, drowned, and devoured by packs of river otters in parts of California.

Brown pelicans have bounced back from endangered status. | Credit: Hugh Ranson

Pelicans were hunted by humans for feathers and eggs particularly in the southeast, leading president Theodore Roosevelt to name the 3-acre Pelican Island off Florida’s east coast as the nation’s first wildlife refuge; pelicans were also protected by the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Neither law could do much to save the pelican from DDT, and by the late 1960s, the brown pelican was extinct in much of its range. After DDT was banned, reintroduction efforts were extremely successful, and populations have rebounded to the hundreds of thousands. The current threats to pelicans are fishing gear, oil spills, and fluctuations in sardine populations that are a likely result of climate change.

Year-round residents of Santa Barbara, pelicans are gregarious and often seen gliding gracefully in long lines or V formations, sometimes at a height of 50 or so feet, and sometimes skimming right above the waves. They dive with great drama to feed on small fish, filling up their “gular pouch” at the base of their beak before emptying it of water and gulping down the fish that remain.

**Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus)**

Delisted in 1994, gray whales migrate annually from feeding grounds in and near the arctic to breeding grounds off Baja California. Their 10,000- to 14,000-mile round trip is the longest among mammals. Gray whales are filter-feeding baleen whales and top out at about 50 feet in length and 45 tons.

A gray whale comes up for a look around, a behavior known as “spyhopping.” | Credit: Courtesy NOAA Fisheries

Gray whales were hunted off California until 1936, when they were protected in the U.S., though commercial whaling continued internationally until the early 1970s. The population, estimated in the range of 100,000 worldwide pre-whaling, is now roughly 27,000, concentrated along the west coast of North America. Populations in the western Pacific, along the coasts of Asia, remain endangered. Threats to gray whales include disturbances of their breeding lagoons in Mexico, climate change, acute noise from human activity, oil spills, entanglement with fishing gear, and boat collisions. These threats are particularly acute in Asia as substantial nearshore industrialization and shipping congestion throughout the migratory corridors of the western gray whale increase the likelihood of ship strikes, chemical pollution, and other disturbances. Gray whales in the Atlantic are thought to have been hunted to extinction in the 1700s, though there are occasional sightings of them all over the world.

In January 1997, a female newborn calf nicknamed J.J. was stranded in Marina del Rey and rushed to Sea World in San Diego. Staff and scientists scrambled to save her, and 14 months later, weighing 10 tons and 31 feet long, J.J. was released back to the ocean during the passing northward gray whale migration. Scientists had hoped to monitor her progress, but tracking devices fell off and researchers lost track of her after a few days. She remains the largest animal ever kept in captivity.

Gray whales can be seen off Santa Barbara from November through April as they head south and then north again on their epic migration.

**Island Fox (Urocyon littoralis)**

Found only on the Channel Islands, the island fox (about the size of a housecat, but slighter), was delisted in 2016 after an amazingly brief and successful restoration effort that began around 2000, with listing in 2004. For millennia, island foxes were the top predator on the islands, but in the 1990s golden eagles took up residence, filling the void left by the disappearance of the bald eagle. The golden eagles feasted on feral piglets, but were not averse to munching on island foxes, which had never needed to develop a fear of avian predators, as the native bald eagles eat mostly fish.

The recovery of the island fox from near-extinction shows the power of a dedicated team and a smart recovery plan. | Credit: Hugh Ranson

Due to golden eagle predation, from 1994 to 2000, island fox populations fell by more than 90%, from about 1,500 foxes to fewer than 100. The recovery plan featured a few facets: capturing and breeding the remaining foxes, trapping and relocating the golden eagles, reintroducing bald eagles, eradicating feral pigs, and then re-releasing captive foxes.

With the airborne threats gone, the 100 or so reintroduced captive foxes boomed, with populations now just under 3,000. NPS wildlife biologist Tim Coonan calls the saving of the island fox “one of the most successful, and quickest, recovery programs in the history of endangered species.” Since they have no fear of predators, island foxes are easily seen roaming the Channel Islands. They scamper about, noses to the ground, all but oblivious to humans nearby.

**Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus anatum)**

Peregrine falcons, the world’s fastest creature, have been removed from the Endangered Species list. | Credit: Hugh Ranson

Delisted in 1999, the American peregrine falcon is the fastest animal alive, though no one is really sure how fast they can go. Radar tracking has measured about 115 miles per hour, but ornithologists claim they can dive at speeds well over 200 when they prey on unsuspecting pigeons and other birds. The crow-sized peregrines are terrific hunters and have been used in the sport of falconry for more than 3,000 years.

Peregrines were another victim of DDT, but after the ban, captive breeding and release programs were set up to help the species recover, taking advantage of the expertise of the falconry community. There are 18 or 19 subspecies of peregrines, ranging across much of the globe, from tundra to the tropics, appropriate for a bird whose scientific and common names both mean “wandering falcon.” Once functionally extinct in the eastern U.S., they have been re-introduced.

Peregrine falcons can be found year-round throughout Santa Barbara County from the mountains to the Channel Islands. Highly adaptable even to city life, peregrines can nest on ledges of buildings (often becoming webcam celebrities) or bridges and even use artificial lighting in urban areas to extend their hunting times.

Monarchs Are Next on the List

Another iconic Santa Barbara species, the Monarch butterfly, was proposed for listing as an endangered species in December 2024. The western population has declined about 95% since the mid-1980s. Overwintering sites like Ellwood Mesa in Goleta were eerily devoid of monarchs this past winter. While the causes of the decline are not fully understood, habitat loss, lack of milkweed (the monarch’s preferred food), pesticide use, and climate change are all considered likely culprits.

The beloved monarch butterfly has been proposed for the Endangered Species list, and people can help by planting milkweed. | Credit: Hugh Ranson

How to Help Monarchs

While large-scale interventions and focused scientific research is needed to help monarchs, because they travel so broadly around the western U.S., every backyard gardener can also help increase the monarchs’ chances.

Plant milkweed in your yard, or even on a balcony or porch. The monarch depends on several species of milkweed for both breeding and food.
Plant a mixture of annuals and perennials that flower at different times to provide food throughout the breeding season and migration. Great native options are yarrow, coyote mint, clarkias, sages, and verbena.
Avoid using pesticides (insecticides, fungicides, herbicides). Not every nuisance needs to be eliminated, so learn to accept a low level of pests and weeds, and never apply pesticides preventatively. If you do need to use pesticides, start with an organic option, and a pesticide that targets the specific problem you have. Broad-spectrum or multi-use pesticides are heavily toxic and can harm beneficial wildlife, like pollinating monarchs.

The cumulative effect of many small actions can add up to a lifeline for a beloved butterfly that’s on the ropes. For a more complete list of ways to help, check out the Xerces Society.