By Jennifer Kohlhepp, Managing Editor
Resident Bobby Pfeiffer spent most of his summer on an island in the sun supporting tourism and educating the public about conservation.
As a member of the Catalina Island Conservancy’s Summer Naturalist program, Mr. Pfeiffer helped the Avalon and Two Harbors communities on Catalina Island provide their visitors with hands-on nature activities, interpretive hikes, and knowledge about all of the island’s incredible natural resources. He is one of four young adults that were selected from throughout the nation to join the conservancy on the island this summer.
”This year’s summer naturalists are outstanding college students with a passion for nature and conservation who brought their enthusiasm to Catalina to support the conservancy’s mission of educating the public and encouraging island visitors to explore and experience the wildlands,” said Ann M. Muscat, PhD, the conservancy’s president and CEO. “Each one has a wealth of environmental education experience, and they are providing the island’s visitors and residents with natural and cultural history interpretation at the Wrigley Memorial and Botanic Garden, Airport in the Sky, Two Harbors and on Crescent Avenue.”
Pfeiffer, who received his bachelor of science degree in animal science from Rutgers University, has worked at the Adventure Aquarium in Camden for the past two years.
”I was working at Adventure Aquarium in Camden, and I wanted to work for a place that worked towards education and conservation as opposed to a highly-for-profit corporate monster,” Mr. Pfeiffer said. “I told this to a friend I had made while volunteering on a mangrove conservation project in Baja, Mexico and she instantly recommended Catalina Island. I figured this would be a great opportunity for a multitude of reasons as the conservancy’s mission statement is founded on three pillars — conservation, education, and recreation. Two of those were exactly what I was looking for and nobody can argue with a bit of recreation during the summer.”
He began working as a summer naturalist on June 9 with an intensive two-week training course that prepared him for his role as ambassador for the conservancy and Catalina Island. He then went to work on the island, where he was available to the public until Aug. 15.
”On the island I worked as a naturalist focusing on education outreach,” Mr. Pfeiffer said. “The majority of my time was spent interacting with the public in a mobile nature station. There we had various artifacts (skulls, shells, feathers, photos, etc.), each of which encouraged passersby to ask questions. The nature station really attracted the attention of kids and we spent a good deal of our time talking with and interacting with them. I also lead a variety of hikes, usually ranging from 2-6 miles; on those hikes I covered a variety of subjects including history, geology, ecology in addition to plant and animal identification.”
Living on the island was very interesting and very different from living in New Jersey, Mr. Pfeiffer said.
”The first impression is that of a small beach town not too dissimilar to a place like Martha’s Vineyard but a bit more mountainous and extremely diverse,” he said. “There are shops and restaurants in the city of Avalon (population 3,500); Avalon also is a bit more tourist-oriented. Also striking is the lack of any apparent water. It seems to be a desert and in my 10 weeks there I encountered one half-hour long thunderstorm. The area outside of Avalon is my favorite. There are steep roads and hiking trails crisscrossing the island, secret beaches that require one to hike in and fairly tall peaks (2,000 feet). There is also a smaller town, Two Harbors, which population consists almost entirely of boaters; working here is interesting as there is only three structures in the town — a restaurant/bar, general store, and a dive shop. Also the wildlife on the island is incredible — a unique species called an Island Fox, an abundance of birds, tons of bald eagles and falcons — and there is an incredible abundance of marine life easily visible due to the clarity of the water.”
He said he had so many once-in-a-lifetime experiences that will treasure.
”There is a secluded beach called Ben Weston; it took me most of the night to hike to,” Mr. Pfeiffer said. “It was worth it though. I got to sleep on a sand beach under the stars. The beach is a windward beach meaning that it gets the full force of Pacific waves (as opposed to leeward beaches like Avalon that face east toward California and get very small waves generally) so I got to sleep with the sound of the ocean next to me. The next day was spent relaxing on the beach where I didn’t see a single person all day and had a couple of sea lion hang out on the beach with me for a period to watch an amazing sunset.”
He had another memorable experience after a patron on a hike he was guiding offered him the opportunity to take off in a two-man plane from “The Airport in the Sky,” Catalina’s tiny airport.
”Of course I accepted; I got an exceptional view of the island and got to attempt two landings as the first was unsuccessful, we came in a bit too high and got caught in a crosswind that carried us too far and were forced to abort the landing, circle, and try again,” Mr. Pfeiffer said.
The experience was also an educational one for Mr. Pfeiffer.
”The things that interest me the most are the interactions of animals in plants in an isolated ecosystem, and just how delicate that balance is,” he said. “The island has been above the surface of the water for only 5 million years and in that time it has become such a drastically different place than the rock it was when it popped above the surface of the ocean.”
He continued, “I think endemic species, the ones found on the island and nowhere else in the world, are truly magnificent. The fact that animals, like southern pacific rattlesnake, could have rafted to the island and by chance established a population is so interesting. Or how the cutest foxes you have ever seen, island foxes, differentiated from their mainland relative — the gray fox — so quickly is really cool.”
To cope with the small size of the island and the lack of resources, Mr. Pfeiffer said, many of the animals shrunk over generations in a process called island dwarfism. Island foxes weigh only 6 pounds on average, he said. Animals with plentiful food resources grew, he said, leaving the Catalina Island ground squirrel weighing twice as much as its mainland ancestor as a result of island gigantism.
”And the plants and trees evolved with that ground squirrel being their biggest predator and many of them have lost their defenses (physical such as though fibrous leaves, and chemical foul tasting qualities),” Mr. Pfeiffer said. “All this mean that when man introduced large herbivores goats, deer, and even bison the native plants are eaten selectively over the invasive. This leads to another cool thing I have learned and that is all about island restoration.”
The Catalina Island Conservancy is removing invasive plants to make room for natives and endemics, especially rare endemics, such as Catalina Island Ironwood (a tree so hard it is notorious for breaking chainsaws), and Catalina Island Mountain Mahogany (one of the most endangered tree species in the world with only six individuals in the wild), according to Mr. Pfeiffer.
”They have also removed goats and wild boar from the island and manage bison populations at stable numbers using birth control,” he said. “I feel so lucky to have gotten a chance to work and live here.”
Mr. Pfeiffer graduated from Steinert (Hamilton High School East) in 2007. He still resides in Hamilton, although not in his childhood home on Pasadena Drive.
”My long-term goals are still up in the air,” he said. “I have such a diverse interest that I can still see any number of career paths working out well. In the immediate future I plan to continue working as an outdoor educator, teaching conservation, ecology, and biology in various locations. I do however enjoy doing research and would one day enjoy completing a PhD in the ecology or evolution fields.”
He made the most of his journey to California by stopping at seven national parks en route to the island. He visited the Grand Canyon (south rim), Zion, Bryce Canyon, Great Basin, Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon national parks.
”They were all unique and amazing but Great Basin and Yosemite were my favorites,” he said. “I think I could spend years just exploring every inch of them.”
In Great Basin National Park he saw “an amazing glacial lake, beautiful mountains capped with snow, a cave with some of the most interesting structures I have ever seen, and the darkest night sky imaginable, not to mention the oldest trees in the world and the best campground I have ever stayed at.”
”The night there I spent at a ranger sponsored astronomy class with huge telescopes focused on Saturn, various nebula, and even a distant galaxy; afterwards I had a tough time closing my eyes the sky was just so full of stars,” he said. “In Sequoia National Park I stumbled upon a controlled burn in a section of the forest (small fires are extremely good for the ecosystem and held to prevent huge damaging fire storms, as well as allow for germination of many seeds). Awestruck by this I followed the line of smoldering embers along a trail, the smoke made for the coolest rays of light and shadows. As I was walking along no more than 30 feet in front of me I saw a black bear mother with a cub in tow; the scene was magical the bears looked like they were cover in a fine ash from the fire.”
The Catalina Island Conservancy was formed in 1972 and is one of California’s oldest land trusts. Its mission is to be a responsible steward of its lands through a balance of conservation, education and recreation. For more information about the summer naturalists and the conservancy’s many other education programs, call 310-510-0954 or visit catalinaconservancy.org.

