Behind the Scenes: Channel Islands Superintendent Interview

HOWDY PARK PEOPLE! Our conversation with Ethan McKinley, Channel Islands National Park Superintendent, is LIVE. Ethan is one of the youngest superintendents in the park service and his impressive knowledge of the park definitely clues us into why. You will be shocked by the types of things you learn about Channel Islands in this episode. For example, it boasts an Alaskan-like wilderness off the coast of the megapolis of Southern California. Listen NOW on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts 🪩🎉

Exciting update (if ya didn’t see last time): We have VIDEO!! You can view the video version of this episode on YouTube and Spotify. Let me know what you all think!

Keep reading to hear my favorite moment from the interview, a new thing I learned and an interesting fact about Channel Islands National Park (honestly was hard to pick only one for each category), all from my interview with Channel Islands Superintendent, Ethan McKinley!

Favorite Moment from Interview with Ethan — Listen here 

• Navy Seal Drop Off: Channel Islands National Park is made up of five islands and each island presents a different wilderness and national park experience. San Miguel Island, the most remote of the islands, is not for the faint of heart, and my favorite moment was learning about the beach landing. Use your imagination and think about a Navy SEALS movie for inspiration of what this looks like. From the mainland you take a big comfortable boat out to the islands, then you have to get on a skiff, a smaller rigid boat that gets you past the waves, and jump out of the boat. The boat driver and team then throw your stuff in a waterproof bag to you and you wave goodbye to them and won’t see anybody until they come to pick you up a few days later. Seems pretty intense!

One Thing I Learned Interviewing Ethan

• Biosecurity: The proper definition of Biosecurity is “the prevention of disease causing agents entering or leaving any place where they can pose a risk”. The Channel Islands have never been connected to California, so the species have had a long time to develop in their own environment. This means they are especially susceptible to invasive species, so biosecurity (a term I didn’t know existed before researching for Ethan’s interview) is really important for Channel Islands. Something Ethan shared, that I thought was really interesting, was that they are actually putting in a New Zealand designed biosecurity station, as New Zealand is way ahead of us in this department. There will be an anti-germination component, which is a spray that comes up on the bottom of each person’s boots and can kill the possibility of any seeds from establishing on the islands.

Interesting Fact About Channel Islands National Park

• Capturing Eagles via Helicopter: Channel Islands had beautiful native bald eagles that unfortunately went extinct locally (you’ll have to listen to the full episode to hear how). This local extinction enabled golden eagles to move into the islands (mainly terrestrial hunters moving in from the mainland out to the islands), and they started hunting the endangered island foxes. Given their non-native presence on the island and their threat to endangered species, the park decided to live capture all the golden eagles. Thinking about this, this is kind of an insane thing to do (and you can tell I thought so by my reaction when talking to Ethan). But, to make it even crazier, they did it via helicopters and essentially large pillowcases — imagine seeing this while camping!!

Maddie’s Outdoor Obsessions

This section will always highlight my favorite picks from the past week in the outdoor & adventure world

• Explore Austin: The coolest non-profit ever!! I am learning about more and more non-profits and programs like this, so if learning about Explore Austin intrigues you, I am sure your city has something similar. Explore Austin a 100% free, six-year-long program serving youth from economically disadvantaged communities through mentoring, leadership and outdoor adventure. I just applied to be a trip leader so am, hopefully, extremely excited to get involved and combine a few of my passions (and share that journey with you all of course).

• NOLS: I’ve shared about NOLS before, but wanted to share about them again so that my new newsletter subscribers can learn about them, but also because I am doing a NOLS Wilderness First Responder training this week. This training is applicable to being an Explore Austin leader. While NOLS does rad exploration trips, they also do medical training and certification. The Wilderness First Responder is the industry standard for professional guides, trip leaders, search and rescue team members, outdoor recreationalists, and international travelers. I’m doing my best to not get too queasy during the more gory scenarios.

Thanks for making it this far — you a real one — see you all for our next episode release in two weeks!!

Maddie

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