Category: Latest News

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, organized citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead

Mead’s quote has been some comfort during this past week that was so disappointing for San Diego environmentalists hoping to improve the City of San Diego’s Vernal Pool Habitat Conservation Plan. And it’s been a brutal year overall watching environmental and other progressive laws and agencies systematically dismantled by the Trump administration.

Fighting for vernal pools and the other special subtle nature of San Diego may seem like a fools errand. It’s not. One wealthy woman who cared saved Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve forever. One small group of Del Mar residents saved Torrey Pines Extension and another goup saved nearby Crest Canyon. One vernal pool scientist and her attorney saved an incredible vernal pool site in Tierra Santa. A small group saved the Carmel Mountain and Del Mar Mesa preserves and all their vernal pools. A small group saved Coyote Canyon in Anza Borrego Desert State Park from a freeway and stagnant flooding behind a proposed dam. One woman stopped the dam proposed to flood the sublime Pamo Valley near Ramona. One woman stopped a huge landfill in Campo. And one man has fought off the huge Fanita Ranch sprawl subdivision in Santee for over twenty years. Imagine what more could change for the better if everyone did one thing to fight to save nature.

Time really flies when you’re working to save tiny endangered plants! This vintage newspaper story in the San Diego Union from 1991 describes the exciting rediscovery of the endangered Orcutt’s spineflower in Encinitas that, before then hadn’t been seen for several years and had even been considered extinct as development chewed up San Diego coastal natural habitats. Way back then, now-TCLC Executive Director David Hogan was quoted, “This site is desperately needed as a seed bank to replant areas where it was once known. That would be part of the recovery program.” The spineflower’s status was somewhat improved when the species was also rediscovered in the late 1990s at several sites on Navy land on Point Loma and at one site near Del Mar in 2009.

Fast-forward to 2017: TCLC has been working to protect and restore the still-endangered Orcutt’s spineflower (Chorizanthe oructtiana) as part of its Rarest Plants Project. The spineflower live only in very particular soils near the coast where nearly all of its original habitat has been lost to urban development. So, starting in 2014, TCLC began mapping the special soils and conducting field surveys in other suitable habitat to identify any other unknown populations on nature preserve lands.

TCLC spread the exciting news in 2015 that this work resulted in the discovery of seven new populations of the species at several coastal North County preserves. Since then, TCLC staff, volunteers, and colleagues with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Cabrillo National Monument have found four additional populations for a grand total of eleven new, never before-recorded populations with hundreds of plants!

TCLC has also worked with the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden to collect and bulk seed to attempt to establish new populations, weeded around existing populations, and installed fencing and signs at several preserves to direct visitors to designated trails and away from delicate spineflower populations. Seed bulked by the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden was introduced to several areas of suitable but unoccupied habitat in late 2015 and we’re pleased to report that nearly five hundred plants were counted at the seeded sites in spring 2017. In all, population numbers are quite a bit more encouraging than the mere fifteen seen in Encinitas in 1991! Check out this detailed report on TCLC’s work to protect Orcutt’s spineflowers for much more information.

The conservation status of Orcutt’s spineflower has significantly improved since then with so many newly discovered populations. But even these populations located on lands protected from development like Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve are still seriously threatened by exotic invasive plants and trampling from visitors walking off-trails. One particular invasive plant, purple veldt grass has spread rapidly from freeway and other landscaping and could outcompete spineflowers and even crowd out most other coastal natural vegetation in just a few years. So much more work is needed to control invasive plants and to provide long-term stewardship for the spineflower and many other native plants, endangered and common alike.

TCLC couldn’t have done the work to save Orcutt’s spineflower without the generous support of several government agencies and staff at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, San Diego Association of Governments, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Big thanks are due too to AJP Consulting, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Rocks Biological Consulting, and Torrey Pines Docent extraordinaire Margaret Fillius.

The Chaparral Lands Conservancy has submitted a grant application to the California State Parks Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division (OHMVRD) to restore off-highway vehicle (OHV) unauthorized routes in eastern San Diego County.

The Eastern San Diego County OHV Unauthorized Routes Project is located in two discreet areas: Buck Canyon near the community of Ranchita; and McCain Valley near the community of Boulevard. The Project would restore unauthorized routes used by OHVs in both areas including OHV trails where there are no designated routes and trails designated for non-motorized recreation that are used by OHVs. Restoration of unauthorized routes would protect natural and cultural resources and block ongoing OHV access into designated wilderness, riparian areas, endangered species habitat, and other sensitive areas.

The preliminary grant application is available on the OHMVRD’s website for review and comment from Tuesday, March 8, 2016 through 5pm Monday, April 4, 2016. The OHMVRD website provides detailed instructions on how to view the grant application and submit comments. Note that comments must be submitted by email to both the OHMVRD and TCLC. Comments to TCLC should be submitted to David Hogan at director@chaparralconservancy.org.

For more information, please contact TCLC Director David Hogan at 619 756-3864 or director@chaparralconservancy.org.