, 2008, Rick et al., 2009b and Rick, 2013). Fig. 2a documents the find more timing of some human ecological events on the Channel Islands relative to human population densities. We can say with confidence that Native Americans

moved island foxes between the northern and southern Channel Islands ( Collins, 1991 and Vellanoweth, 1998) and there is growing evidence that humans initially introduced mainland gray foxes to the northern islands ( Rick et al., 2009b). Genetic, stable isotope, and other studies are under way to test this hypothesis. Another island mammal, Peromyscus maniculatus, appears in the record on the northern Channel Islands about 10,000 years ago, some three millennia after initial human occupation, and was a likely stowaway in human canoes ( Walker, 1980, Wenner and Johnson, 1980 and Rick, 2013). On the northern Channel Islands, Peromyscus nesodytes, a larger deer mouse had colonized the RGFP966 nmr islands prior to human arrival, sometime during the Late Pleistocene. The two species of mice co-existed for millennia until the Late Holocene when P. nesodytes went extinct, perhaps related to interspecific competition with P. manicualtus and changing island habitats

( Ainis and Vellanoweth, 2012 and Rick et al., 2012a). Although extinction or local extirpation of island mammals and birds is a trend on the Channel Islands, these declines appear to be less frequent and dramatic cAMP than those documented on Pacific and Caribbean Islands, a pattern perhaps related to the absence of agriculture on the Channel Islands and lower levels of landscape clearance and burning (Rick et al., 2012a). Fires have been documented on the Channel Islands during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene (Anderson et al., 2010b and Rick et al., 2012b), but we are just beginning to gain an understanding of burning by the Island Chumash. Ethnographic sources document burning by Chumash peoples on the mainland (Timbrook et al., 1982), but say little about the islands. Anderson et al. (2010b) recently presented a Holocene record

of fire history on Santa Rosa Island, which suggests a dramatic increase in burning during the Late Holocene (∼3000 years ago), attributed to Native American fires. Future research should help document ancient human burning practices and their influence on island ecosystems. For now, we can say that the Island Chumash strongly influenced Channel Island marine and terrestrial ecosystems for millennia. The magnitude of these impacts is considerably less dramatic than those of the ensuing Euroamerican ranching period (Erlandson et al., 2009), a topic we return to in the final section. Archeological and paleoecological records from islands provide context and background for evaluating the Anthropocene concept, determining when this proposed geological epoch may have begun, and supplying lessons for modern environmental management.