Santa Rosa Island
Santa Rosa Island is the second largest of the Channel Islands of California. It is part of the Channel Islands National Park, but the previous owner, Vail & Vickers of Santa Barbara, California--who sold the island to the federal government in 1986--retained the right to continue ranching on the island through 2011. The last domestic cattle were shipped off the island in 1998 but Kaibab mule deer and Roosevelt elk remain.
A population of a variety of the Torrey pine (Pinus torreyana insularis) grows exclusively on the island. If considered as a separate species, it could have once been the rarest pine in the world. However, the population has grown from about 100 trees in the early 20th centruy to over 2000 trees today.
