the Mexican government in 1922. Guadalupe shares the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion with the Channel Islands of California in the United States, but the island was at one time practically denuded of all plants higher than a few centimeters by up to 100,000 feral goats. Originally brought to the island in the 19th century by European whalers and sealers for provisions when stopping over, the population eventually eliminated most vegetation; the number of feral goats declined to a few thousand. Before this collapse, the main impact of the feral goat population was about the turn of the 19th/20th century. Naturalist A. W. Anthony wrote in 1901: "It is directly due to the despised Billy-goat that many interesting species of plants formerly abundant are now extinct, and also that one or more of the birds peculiar to the island has disappeared, and others are following rapidly." After the crash, the feral goat population once again grew, this time more slowly, until it had reached the new, lower carrying capacity at maybe 10,000–20,000 in modern times. The island had been a nature conservancy area since August 16, 1928, making it one of the oldest reserves in Mexico. Extirpation of the feral goats was long envisioned, but logistical difficulties, such as island size and lack of suitable spots for landing and encamping hunters and material, prevented this. In 2002, the Mexican government (including SEMARNAT) and the conservation group Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas began extirpating the feral goats. In June 2005, after many years of false starts, the Mexican government had almost completed a round-up and evacuation of the remaining feral goat population. In 2007, the feral goat extirpation program ended (10,000 feral goats were extirpated). Guadalupe Island was designated a biosphere reserve on April 25, 2005. French sea captain Auguste Duhaut-Cilly remarked on the tall trees on the north of Guadalupe Island as he sailed past on January 2, 1827. Of the four large tree species on Guadalupe Island (the Guadalupe palm, Guadalupe cypress, island oak, and Monterey pine), there were only old individuals left; the California juniper population had entirely disappeared. As the feral goats ate any seedlings that managed to germinate, no regeneration of trees was possible. Water, formerly plentiful as the common fogs condensed in the forests of the northern end of the island, today only occurs in a few scattered pools and springs. Because the