Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
New Visitor Center Opens at Channel Islands National Park on Scorpion Ranch
It takes about an hour from the nation's second largest city to drive the 101 Freeway to the Ventura Harbor. With another hour by boat and you're inside one of the less visited National Parks in the country. Welcome to Channel Islands National Park, a group of five protected islands that represent what California looked like before modern humans developed the land, although some of the islands are in recovery after early century farming and other harms to the ecosystem.
This week marked a big step for the park as they unveiled the new Scorpion Ranch Visitor Center on Santa Cruz Island, the biggest and most visited of the five at 96 square miles. Of the 60,000 visitors to the islands (over 200,000 make it to the visitor center on the mainland), 50,000 make it to Santa Cruz where boats can land at two places, Prisoner's Harbor and Scorpion Ranch, where a new visitor center was debuted on Monday.
"Within a short space of time, a person can leave one world and really come to another world," an awed inspired Congresswoman Lois Capps said before the ribbon cutting. "And that is a gift."
The new visitor center includes educational displays and recreational information such as hiking trails and kayaking. It was funded purely on fees, mainly from the nominal $15 a night camping charge. There is no park entrance fee, but you do have to arrange transportation through the park's concessionaires.
Support for LAist comes from
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity. -
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
Monarch butterflies are on a path to extinction, but there is a way to support them — and maybe see them in your own yard — by planting milkweed.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
-
The weather’s been a little different lately, with humidity, isolated rain and wind gusts throughout much of Southern California. What’s causing the late-summer bout of gray?
Best of LAist