SAN CLEMENTE ISLAND, Calif. (KGTV) — Something special is happening at the Navy's island, 79 miles off the shore of San Diego.
Five species are being taken off the endangered species list.
Many people don't realize the U.S. Navy is in the environmental business and definitely wouldn't think something like this could happen on an island that is an active bombing range.
"People picture a moonscape, and that isn't the case. The areas are small where they do target training- the areas of impact. We have plants flourishing," said Melissa Booker, biologist.
Four plants and one tiny bird native to the island were able to repopulate.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife said it's an extremely difficult feat.
Melissa Booker and Bryan Munson are two of the Navy's scientists that made the de-listement possible.
"Of course, it excited. This is why we do the work that we do," said Booker.
Booker worked with the San Clemente Island Bell's Sparrow
It's only one of nine birds that have ever come off of the list.
She and her team grew the population from 34 to up to 6,000 birds.
"I may be biased here- an adorable little songbird. It has two dark sorts of mustache lines. A black spot on a white chest. It likes to tick its tale. It likes to fly low to the ground," said Booker.
It lives in an area that looks like a desert oasis of the sea.
Filled with cacti and a shrub called California Box Thorn.
"The bell sparrows nest in there. They eat there because they'll eat insects that are attracted to the shrub. They'll eat fruits that occur on the shrub, and it forms great protection from predators," said Booker.
The sparrow would have no food if the plant population on the island didn't regrow.
Four species that were able to recover are the San Clemente Island paintbrush, lotus, larkspur, and bushmallow.
Munson is the botanist on the island and carried on the work to rehabilitate four plants.
The biggest obstacle for the team was goats.
"This whole island was overrun with goats 30-50 years ago, and they devoured everything," said Munson.
It was decades worth of work for scientists to get the goats off the island and re-grow the plants.
"At the time of listing, there were only two known locations of larkspur on the entire island. One of those locations only had one individual, and so at the time, the Navy actually put fences around those locations to sure that the plants would not be eaten by goats," said Munson.
Now that the species are off the list, management is next.
The Navy will keep an eye on the species for the next nine years, counting the population every year and making sure nothing impacts them.
"We manage for invasive species. We manage for fire to make sure fire doesn't get out of control, and we're always on the lookout for any diseases that may be introduced- some people might have heard of avian flu or bird flu. So, we have very specific protocols," explained Booker.
