Before the pandemic, AP Biology students (and special guest Emmy H. ‘19) took the boat ride to Anacapa Island to continue their involvement in ongoing habitat restoration projects.
This special partnership between Besant Hill school students and biologists from the California Institute of Environmental Studies began a few years ago and continues to develop into something really special.
The work of the biologists and Besant Hill school student volunteers is part of a broader project focused on restoring seabird nesting habitat for the Scripps’s Murrelet and the Cassin’s Auklet. Students spent much of their time planting species of flora native to the channel islands. The plant species being put in the ground are critical in establishing nesting habitat for these rare seabirds and controlling the erosion of topsoil on the island.
Besant Hill school students put nearly 800 plants in the ground and surveyed the success of the planting they did a year ago at neighboring sites. The incredible success of this project from a year ago surprised everyone and reinforced the important work being done by Besant Hill school students on this unique island chain.
