Islands



           Channel Islands National Park consists of five of the eight Channel Islands off the coast of the U.S. state of California, in the Pacific Ocean. The Islands are San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Anacapa, Santa Barbra, and Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz being the largest island and being 76% owned by The Nature Conservancy. The park headquarters and the visitor center are not even located on any of the islands but in the city of Ventura. The Channel Islands were created by tectonic forces, which caused them to rise up out of the ocean five million years ago. They have always been islands separate from the mainland, and thus have unique plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth.