Dear Friends.

It was a pleasure joining you all on Santa Cruz Island yesterday and having the opportunity to show you the projects we are championing at Scorpion Anchorage.  From the humpback whales to the tour with John Gherini to the vigorous hike to Cavern Point, everyone I talked to said they had a terrific time. I would like to thank you all for coming along and letting us tell you about our upcoming work to restore the habitat at Cavern Point, and our work to restore the cultural landscape vegetation in Scorpion Valley. We are looking forward to supporting Channel Islands National Park, which desperately needs our help, now more than ever.

Our immediate plans include leading 15 trips this year to the island with school-aged kids and also adults. Work will include removing non-native plants, collecting seed, and spreading the seed near the lookout at Cavern Point later in the year. A program like this will cost us about $2,500 per trip ($1,430 for transportation and $1020 for staff supervision and coordination).

As I said to the group at Cavern Point, we have started a special Santa Cruz Island fund under the CIR umbrella, and all donations to that fund will be used at Scorpion on the projects you heard about yesterday. Almost all of you have generously supported CIR for years, and many of you have donated at the $1,000 - $5,000 level or more. We are hoping that you all could consider a stretch gift by donating your regular amount as an unrestricted gift to CIR, but add 50% more to be used exclusively for our island project. Most of you give at the end of the year, but now is a great time to donate to the CIR island fund. Five generous donors have agreed to match every contribution to CIR dollar for dollar during the month of May up to $25,000.  You can either send a check to PO Box 40228, Santa Barbara, CA 93140 (write “SCI fund” in the memo of your check) or donate online at cirweb.org/donate (select “Santa Cruz Island Fund” under the designation section of the donation page).

We look forward to completing at least 20 volunteer trips to Scorpion every year, but we really can’t do it without your help. Thanks again for yesterday's camaraderie and your generous support, and I wish you a great holiday weekend!

Ken Owen
Executive Director
Channel Islands Restoration