All Eight Channel Islands Club:
Birds Studied by George Willett on Eight Islands
From 1904 to 1941, Covering 37 Years

An inventory and history of early scientists and naturalists that explored all eight Channel Islands of California is a subject that has not been researched adequately. This investigation begins with an analysis of George Willett, ornithologist, as an interdisciplinary research project between the natural sciences and social sciences. The research embraces environmental history and human geography with a goal to document the deterioration of the Channel Islands via the writings of early scientific explorers of the Channel Islands. This research simultanesously heralds those few scientists and naturalists that were fortunate to have visited all eight Channel Islands before the World War II Era.

George Willett was a museum scientist at the LA County Museum of Natural History, who focused his research on birds (ornithology), fossils (paleontology) and molluscs (malacology). The exact dates of his visits can be discerned from his published writings. It is possible to calculate when he first visited and last-visited particular islands. It now appears that George Willett visited seven of the eight Channel Islands between 1904 and 1911. Only San Clemente Island was not visited. He had a close association with another ornithologist, C.B. Linton, who had visited San Clemente Island several times. Thus, George Willett had a grasp of the eight Channel Islands ornithology by 1911. He finally got the opportunity to visit his "eighth Channel Island, San Clemente, as a member of the Channel Islands Biological Survey, that began in 1939. Several L.A. Museum scientists, including Meryl Dunkle and Jack von Bloeker, visited all eight Channel Islands between 1939 to 1941, but only George Willett had already been to seven of the eight islands between 1904 and 1911, 35 years earlier. Truely, George Willett had the longest association with the islands, from his first explorations in 1904 to his last explorations in 1941, a span of 37 years. He also visited many of the California Islands of Mexico's northwest Baja California coast, including the Coronados Islands. He is a defacto-posthumous member of the All Eight Channel Islands Club, an organization that compiles a list of all people that have been to all eight Channel Islands. Indeed, George Willett is one of a very few people that can claim to have visited all eight Channel Islands, in the first-half of the 20th Century (prior to World War II). Thus far in my preliminary research investigation, it seems that very few scientists had been to all eight Channel Islands by the beginning of World War II. Unless a scientist (naturalist) has been to all eight Channel Islands, it is nearly impossible to achieve a "big-picture" or comprehensive view of the unique ecology and geography of these islands. All eight Channel Islands deserve to be included in Channel Islands National Park, not just five as there is at the current time. It is sad and depressing that the fauna and flora is not that well protected on San Clemente, San Nicolas, and Santa Catalina. The National Park Service is currently doing a better job at preserving the islands. The Wrigley family is doing an appalling job on Catalina, and the U.S. Navy is doing wrongly to nature on San Nicolas and San Clemente. Perhaps it is time for the Sierra Club to enter the "battle" and begin the fight to convert the remaining two U.S. Navy islands to the National Park Service. In the 1930s to 1950s, the federal government turned over Anacapa, Santa Barbara, and San Miguel, to the National Park Service to establish the Channel Islands National Monument. Let us lobby our two U.S. senators and congress-people to have those two Navy islands close their bases and operations there, so that they can become part of the Channel Islands National Park. After that is accomplished, we can begin to work on having at least part of Catalina Island turned over to the National Park Service. We might begin by having the western part of Catalina made into a National Park. When the Sierra Club gets behind a goal like this, it usually is quite successful. The Sierra Club is the premiere organization at "working" the government system to make new National Parks. From Yosemite, to Grand Canyon, to Death Valley, to Joshua Tree, we can look to the Sierra Club as the main reason that we have those beautiful landscapes as Parks. These Channel Islands are no less beautiful than the National Parks on the mainland. George Willett would have been delighted to hear that more islands were protected from U.S. Navy impacts to these delicate island ecosystems.

After the War, many more people begin to explore the Channel Islands. After the War years of 1941-1945, the post-modern era of history begins, where acclerated erosion of the Earth occurs, including negative environmental changes on all eight Channel Islands, while simultaneously, some restoration of nature to a time before the Mission period of the 1700s. It is an "Alice-in-Wonderland" time in the Channel Islands. Seals and Eagles and Otters are making comebacks, slowly returning the island look to a pre-1800 landscape. However, 21st Century improvements by the Navy, Wrigley family, and National Park Service are negative to the environment. The Channel Islands are experiencing a pull to go back-in-time, but also a push to go forward-in-time. The U.S. Navy build many new installations and new military personnel to all eight Channel Islands. Up until World War II, the Channel Islands, with the exception of Catalina Island, had been little visited and rare island species were less impacted. The military introduced many invasive non-natural plants and animals to the Channel Islands. The military, to this day, in our new millenium, still bombs one of our eight Channel Islands, San Clemente, in Los Angeles County. It would have disappointed the early explorers of San Clemente Island to know that this precious and delicate island ecosystem, with many endangered and rare species, is used by the Navy for bombing practice. These bombs often start small fires that kills the native plants and wildlife. Joseph Grinnell and Blanche Trask, who both visited San Clemente in the 1890s at the close of the Nineteenth Century, as well as George Willett, who visited San Clemente in 1939, would have been very frustrated, angry, and sad, that this San Clemente is negatively impacted by their U.S. government. This is why I have documented the early scientific explorers and their environmental perceptions before World War II. Furthermore, they provide us with a "crystal ball" or "kaleidoscope," if you will, to understand the beauty of these islands. Without history, and if we do not listen to its messages, particularly the new branch of history, known as enviornmental history, we are doomed to repeat negative human behavioral actions to the delicate nature of these curious island ecosystems.

In conclusion, good fortune has come to the islands administered by the National Park Service. These preserved islands are recovering from past damage. Restoration of plants and animals is occurring. The non-native animals, such as pigs, have been removed. And the chance of genuine recovery of the Bald Eagle and Sea Otter to the National Park islands is now a reality. The protection of seals that come up on the beaches to give birth and raise their young is due to the protection by the National Park Service. Seals are not as protected on Catalina and the Navy islands of San Clemente and San Nicolas. It does not take "rocket science" to know that the National Parks do better at preservation than the Wrigley family on Catalina, and the Navy on its two islands. We need those three remaining islands as Parks, for the preservation of their delicate wild nature.

Santa Cruz Island:
1907 (November 24). "Collected an adult female Thick-billed Fox Sparrow" (Willett 1912,p.86).
1907 (November 25). Pacific Fulmar; "... near the shores of Santa Cruz Island" (Howell 1917,p.30).
1907 (November 29). Orange-crowned Warbler (Howell 1917,p.90).
1907 (December 4). Pacific Fulmar; (Howell 1917,p.30).
1941 (March 22). Only part of one day (Comstock 1946,p.103).

Anacapa Island:
1910 (June). Island Loggerhead Shrike; "none seen" (Willett 1912,p.92).
1941 (March 15-22). "Birds secured by Mr. and Mrs. Willett..." (Comstock 1946,p.102-103).

Santa Rosa Island:
1910 (June 7). Chipping Sparrow, "Found common ..." (Willett 1933,p.175).
1941 (November 29 to December 14). "On December 7 Pearl Harbor was bombed..." (Comstock 1946,p.106).

San Miguel Island:
1910 (June 10). Royal Tern; "... several immature birds near west end" (Howell 1917,p.29)
1910 (June 15). Song Sparrow; "I found this bird very common among the low bushes..." (Willett 1912,p.85).
1910 (June 23). Pigeon Guillemot; "... found contents of the nest to vary from fresh eggs" (Howell 1917,p.25)

San Nicolas Island:
1911 (June 9). Rock Wren; "On removing some shingles from the roof of the house" (Willett 1912,p.101).
1911 (June 24). Rock Wren (Willett 1912,p.101).
1911 (June 26). Pigeon Guillemot, ". . . saw three birds near San Nicolas" (Howell 1917,p.25).

Santa Barbara Island:
1911 (June 14). Brown Pelican; "I found a colony of about 25 pairs breeding" (Willett 1912,p.21).
1911 (June 16). Song Sparrow; "noted a nest which contained two eggs ..." (Willett 1912,p.84).

San Clemente Island:
1939 (February 18-19). Trip with Donald Meadows & John Comstock (Comstock 1939,p.135).
1939 (November 9 to December 10). (Comstock 1939,p.135).
1941 (February 14-22). "... Gambel's Quail ... Ring-necked Pheasant ..." (Comstock 1946,p.100)