San Nicolas Island

The island has a small airport, though the 10,000-foot (3,000 m) runway is the second-longest in Ventura County (slightly behind the 11,102-foot (3,384 m) one at the Naval Air Station Point Mugu).

[5] For thousands of years, San Nicolas was the home of the Nicoleño people, who were probably related to the Tongva of the mainland and Santa Catalina Island.

[6][7] Russians called the island Il'men, after the name of the maritime fur trade ship that reached it, Il’mena.

[12][13] San Nicolas Island was one of eight candidate sites to detonate the first atomic bomb before White Sands Proving Ground was selected for the Trinity nuclear test.

[16] Composed primarily of Eocene sandstone and shale,[17] much of the island also has marine terrace deposits of Pleistocene age, indicating that it was probably completely submerged at that time.

[18] The entire western part of the island is covered with reddish-brown eolian dune deposits laid down during the early Holocene.

[22] Winters are mild with an average temperature of 55.3 °F (12.9 °C) in February, the coolest month, and is the season where most of the precipitation falls.

Despite the degradation, three endemic plants are found on the island: Astragalus traskiae, Eriogonum grande subspecies timorum, and Lomatium insulare.

The few trees present today, including California fan palms (Washingtonia filifera), were introduced in modern times.

However, early written accounts and the remains of ancient plants in the form of calcareous root casts indicate that, prior to 1860, brush covered a portion of the island.

Although few studies on the island's microbial biodiversity have been conducted, preliminary evidence suggests San Nicolas holds significant algal diversity.

Two species are of particular ecological concern: the western gull (Larus occidentalis) and Brandt's cormorant (Phalacrocorax penicillatus), which are threatened by island foxes.

[35] All cats were relocated to a specially prepared habitat in Ramona, in San Diego County, with the assistance of the Humane Society of the United States.

CIR has been eradicating several invasive species on the island, including Sahara mustard from the habitat of Cryptantha traskiae, a threatened plant in the Borage family.