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.

Throughout its history, the 76-square-mile island of Catalina has played host to Native Americans, smugglers, otter hunters, ranchers, miners, entrepreneurs, vacationers, movie stars, and nature enthusiasts. William Wrigley Jr. (of chewing-gum fame) bought the island in 1919 and later constructed the recognizable casino building, which was never used for gambling but did become one of the best-known ballrooms in America. In the 1970s, the Wrigley family deeded 88 percent of the island to the Catalina Island Conservancy, which protects the natural state of the island and her inhabitants. Today nearly one million tourists visit annually to take in the fishing, parasailing, glass-bottomed tour boating, scuba diving, cycling, camping, galleries, shopping, and dining.

Far off the coast of California looms a harsh rock known as the island of San Nicholas. Dolphins flash in the blue waters around it, sea otter play in the vast kep beds, and sea elephants loll on the stony beaches. Here, in the early 1800s, according to history, an Indian girl spent eighteen years alone, and this beautifully written novel is her story. It is a romantic adventure filled with drama and heartache, for not only was mere subsistence on so desolate a spot a near miracle, but Karana had to contend with the ferocious pack of wild dogs that had killed her younger brother, constantly guard against the Aleutian sea otter hunters, and maintain a precarious food supply. More than this, it is an adventure of the spirit that will haunt the reader long after the book has been put down. Karana's quiet courage, her Indian self-reliance and acceptance of fate, transform what to many would have been a devastating ordeal into an uplifting experience. From loneliness and terror come strength and serenity in this Newbery Medal-winning classic.

Catalina Island the name conjures images of a pristine tropical island. Located twenty-six miles off the coast of Southern California, Catalina Island is known as the island of romance for good reason. A popular destination for boaters, fishermen, and tourists, it's a recreational mecca at sea a place where people come to escape from the reality of urban life. Boasting 86,000 square miles of unspoiled and undeveloped natural beauty, Catalina is an island paradise with wild animals, surrounded by an ocean teeming with fish. For thirty-two years, Charles Douglas Doug Oudin lived a fantasy life on this secluded oasis. As the former harbormaster, he saw it all harrowing storms, dramatic ocean rescues, traumatic accidents, and the tragic death of actress Natalie Wood. Encounters with sharks, buffalo, wild boar, and even a sea serpent are just a few of the strange and unique experiences he had while living on the island. Now, in this memoir, he shares his story. For those who know and love Catalina and those who have always wanted to visit Between Two Harbors reveals a glimpse of what life on the island is really like.

This collection of wild and woolly adventure stories from real life was first published by Stackpole Books in 1954. From roping bear and cougar in Arizona to hunting wild boar with a longbow on Santa Catalina Island in California and alligator wrestling in the Everglades, Howard Hill was the prototypical "extreme" guy. Includes outstanding photography from Hill's adventures of such animals as grizzly bear, elk, mountain sheep and moose. First published by Stackpole Books in 1954. Foreword by Errol Flynn. New preface by Jerry Hill, the author's nephew.

The island of Anacapa, off the coast of California, is overrun with black rats which are threatening the ancient population of ground-nesting birds. Alma Boyd Takesue of the National Park Service is campaigning to exterminate them once and for all, but her systematic plan is in danger of sabotage by two notorious environmental activists, Anise Reed and Dave LaJoy. But when Alma's sights turn to the infestation of non-native pigs on the island of Santa Cruz - where Anise was brought up by her rancher mother - the stakes are raised and the debate threatens to boil over into something much more real...