Fox Network at Santa Cruz Island

The Santa Cruz Island, along with the archipelago of other volcanic islands off the Santa Barbara Channel has often been compared to the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador.  Showcasing the beauty of isolation where endemic species thrive,  the island is also home to island foxes that almost went into extinction in the 1990's after non-natives golden eagles started eating them. The Nature Conservancy,  whose mission is to protect a world where diversity thrives and conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends,  led the successful recovery effort of the Santa Cruz Island fox population through the relocation of golden eagles and reestablishment of the bald eagles on the island and the total eradication of feral pigs who were left behind from the livestock ranching of the island in the 1850's.
"If you think they're cute, wait till they steal your lunch." Volunteer Ranger Jim asked everyone not to leave their backpacks unattended.
The island foxes roaming the Scorpion Canyon campgrounds are like domesticated pets,  walking  stealthily  like cats but looking more like dogs. Island foxes live on six of the eight islands  off the Santa Barbara channel namely San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Santa Catalina, San Nicolas and San Clemente. Compared to the  mainland gray fox, island foxes are smaller and has darker fur and seem to be less elusive. So-called "generalist omnivores", island foxes are active during daylight hours looking for food. Their diet includes fruits, vegetation, insects, mice, crabs and campers' food.
Aside from from the Santa Cruz  island foxes which were an endemic subspecies to the island and found nowhere else in the world,  plants such as the Santa Cruz island morning glory, Santa Cruz island monkey flower, Santa Cruz deer mouse and Santa Cruz island scrub oak just to name a few of the endemic species to the island.
According to the Interpretive Guide for Eastern Santa Cruz Island, the four northern islands off the Santa Barbara Channel namely Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel were once joined together as one island and as part of the Pleistocene (ice age) super island known as Santarosae.  When the glaciers melted some 30 million years  ago, long before Al Gore capitalized on the concept of global warming, the sea levels did rise. Only the elevated areas of the super island popped up from the ocean to become the  four northern islands of today. 
Just like  the  Anacapa Island and the rest of the Channel Islands and all the islets and offshore rocks along the Santa Barbara Channel, the Santa Cruz island emerged as a result of the ramming of the Baja California into  Southern California plates.  Earthquakes brought about by the  Santa Cruz Island Fault  tectonic platea that  run through center of the island caused the constant folding and faulting of  marine sediments and volcanic rocks deposited on the ocean floor some 15 to 30 million years ago. 
The white chalky rock I saw from the hills while hiking the Scorpion Canyon Trail  is derived from silicon-rich single cell sea plants called diatoms that settled on the ocean floor some 15 to 30 million years ago. These white sedimentary rocks  that the mineral chert is derived from emerged into canyons and hills as a result of tectonic plates ramming the earth's crusts  at the bottom of the ocean.  The Chumash Tribes of Native Americans, the first known inhabitants of the islands used chert fractures for arrowheads, drill bits and scraping ad cutting tools. Jasper is the more popular form of chert.
There are no clear accounts on why the ranch that used to be owned by a French immigrant was named Scorpion. The ranch that used to produced wool, beef, fruits and nuts was eventually passed the ranch  on to the Nature Conservancy which  rapidly liquidated the cattle operation and ended the ranching activities on the island. The transfer of 8,500 acres from the Nature Conservancy was completed in 2000. 
According to a legend, the island was called "La Isla de Santa Cruz" after a Chumash returned a cross accidentally left in the island by priest. It was not clear however how a ranch that imported sheep, cattle and pigs to the island got to be called Scorpion. Geology and history are emblazoned all over the island where remnants of the ranching era still stands.
Liza, a cancer survivor, who was also hiking by herself took this photo at the upper level of the the Scorpion Canyon Loop Trail. We briefly talked about surviving. Then the lyrics muddled my wandering mind:
"Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot."


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