Breeding bird populations at Channel Islands National Park off the coast of California have undergone “dramatic changes” over the past 40 years due to multiple conservation efforts, according to a researcher.

A study has found that the amount of light pollution produced within Southern California's three coastal National Park Service units has not significantly changed, and in one case has decreased, over the past two decades.

After two previous clutches failed to hatch, a pair of bald eagle chicks have appeared in a nest in Sauces Canyon on Santa Cruz Island at Channel Islands National Park off the California coast.

Imagine a place in Southern California without freeways, a place without strip malls, smog, or freeway-clogging traffic. Then, imagine a necklace of grassy islands where eagles soar and foxes run, where abandoned olive groves and ripening figs attract ravens. Imagine crystal-blue ocean waters, where the golden Garibaldi swims through swaying kelp forests beneath wave-battered sea caves, undisturbed by cargo ships and oil platforms.