Some of the rarest plants and animals on the planet live along the Santa Barbara mainland, its offshore islands, and the ocean realms in between. And some of the brightest scientific minds have dedicated their life’s work to studying these endangered species, from the back-from-the-brink success stories of the California condor and the Santa Cruz Island fox to the always contentious steelhead trout.
While plenty of head-scratching has long been associated with the imminent demise or promising rebound of any federally listed life-form, the past few months — since the election of Donald Trump — have produced particularly vigorous bouts of uncertainty and concern.
“There has been a lot of talk about this in the environmental community,” said Maggie Hall with Santa Barbara’s Environmental Defense Center. “There are potentially big-picture threats to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) at several levels.”