San Clemente Island, located 68 miles west of San Diego, is the southernmost of the eight main Channel Islands, and is an active training site for the U.S. Navy, including the Navy’s only live fire range. The windswept island, 21 miles long and 1 - 4.5 miles wide, is home to a variety of endemic plants and animals, including the critically endangered San Clemente loggerhead shrike. Here, the Navy funds a long-term collaborative recovery effort that involves field-monitoring, predator management, habitat restoration, and a breeding-release program. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance runs an on-island breeding facility housing a population of 60-65 adult shrikes that are bred to produce birds for release into the wild population. During their work week,  staff fly from the North Island Naval Air Station to the island. Staff duties include animal husbandry, minor veterinary care, hand-rearing of chicks, behavioral monitoring, data management, and facilities maintenance. The survival and successful breeding of shrikes in our care and released to the wilderness has grown the wild population from a low of 14 birds in 1998 to high of over 85 breeding pairs in 2009.

​

My role in managing this project was to ensure all risks were assessed and continued supply for food for the birds was shipped to the island, all staff were engaged and in touch with other members of the recovery department, spending was monitored and reports and grant requests submitted on time and in budget, monitoring overall progress, and encouraging the development of outputs such as scientific papers. My visits to this amazing island helped me develop a greater understanding of logistics planning for remote to reach sites.