California Institute of Environmental Studies

California Institute of Environmental Studies (CIES) is a non-profit organization that was established with the purpose of promoting conservation of marine and coastal birds and their habitats. In recent years, CIES has expanded its role in habitat conservation to include working with a variety of heavily impacted island habitats within the Channel Islands. During this past year, CIES was a key stakeholder in the conservation of natural resources, particularly marine birds and their habitats, within the Channel Islands. During fiscal year 2024_2025, CIES continued to be a leader within California for marine bird conservation. CIES conducted numerous studies and conservation actions for 16 species of marine birds working with land managers within the Channel Islands. Seabird conservation and monitoring work was conducted on 6 of the 8 Channel Islands, working with 6 different organizations. In addition, CIES staff assisted the Marine Bird Restoration Group of Japan, a sister nonprofit organization, with a study of Japanese murrelets. CIES produced numerous annual reports for its clients and presented results at several scientific conferences. CIES also conducted an innovative study on the movements of the ashy storm-petrel during the breeding season the first study of its kind on this species.CIES continued to expand their role in island habitat conservation within the Channel Islands. CIES conducted extensive restoration work for Channel Islands National Park working with the National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and The Nature Conservancy. Restoration work benefiting marine and coastal birds as well as a wide range of rare and endangered plants were conducted on Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, Santa Barbara and San Miguel islands. CIES conducted restoration work over hundreds of acres and outplanted over 10,000 plants as part of these restoration efforts. Significant progress in habitat restoration was gained at Anacapa and Santa Rosa islands this past year. During the year, CIES partnered with The Nature Conservancy and the National Park Service to receive a three-year $4.5 million grant to conduct habitat restoration on Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands. So far, the project has been successful at outplanting thousands of plants to initiate restoration of rare plant species.Also during this fiscal year, CIES played a significant role in monitoring island fox and island skunk populations at Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel islands. CIES also played a lead role in efforts to eradicate Argentine ants from Santa Cruz Island. Finally, CIES has developed a partnership with the Catalina Island Conservancy and works with this organization on habitat restoration at Catalina Island. CIES and the Conservancy anticipates continuing to expand the partnership over the next several years.