A year-round escape for one million annual tourists, Catalina Island is gaining popularity as a world-class eco-destination. Eighty-eight percent of the island is under the watch of the Catalina Island Conservancy, which preserves, manages and restores the island's unique wild lands. Bison, foxes and bald eagles are its best-known inhabitants, but Catalina is home to more than sixty other animal and plant species that exist nowhere else on earth. And they are all within the boundaries of one of the world's most populous regions: Los Angeles County. Biologists Frank Hein and Carlos de la Rosa present a highly enjoyable tour through the fascinating origins, mysterious quirks and ecological victories of one of the West Coast's most remarkable places.
The former director of conservation for the Catalina Island Conservancy, Carlos de la Rosa is director of the La Selva Biological Station operated by the Organization for Tropical Studies in Costa Rica. A native of Venezuela, he specialized as a biologist in aquatic freshwater insects. He holds a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Pittsburgh. Frank Hein is the director of education for the Catalina Island Conservancy. He has been a bald eagle trapper and tracker, nature exhibit designer, bison biologist, and fisheries biologist working with endangered Chinook salmon in Northern California. He earned a Master's degree in environmental policy and management from the University of Denver.