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IN THE FIELD: Corte Madera Mountain

By Tom Oberbauer

Back in January of 1978, I hiked up onto Corte Madera Mountain with a friend, Tom Scott (now with UC Berkeley and UC Riverside), who had been studying Golden Eagles in San Diego County. Bald Eagles were wintering at Corte Madera Lake. After postponing the hike due to rain, that was a good rain season, we drove out to Corte Madera Lake, which was accessible because Tom Scott had a key, and we hiked up the north side of Corte Madera Mountain on a little used trail. The trail climbed through a woodland of mostly coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia), but also Coulter pine (Pinus coulteri), as well as Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi). It was foggy going up and the view was obscured.

IN THE FIELD: Corte Madera Mountain
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In The Field: The New Santa Fe Valley Trail

By Jürgen Schrenk

Recently, the new Santa Fe Valley Trail, connecting the San Dieguito River Park’s Del Dios Gorge Trail with the Lusardi Creek Preserve, was opened to the public. The beginning of the trail took us through fields of Menzies’ Goldenbush (Isocoma menziesii var. menziesii).

In The Field: The New Santa Fe Valley Trail
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The Desert a Month after Monsoonal Rains

By Jürgen Schrenk

After yet another week of waiting for the temps to go down watching our Monarch production and limiting our walks to local parks, I was worried that I might completely miss the monsoonal “spring” in the desert. So, I went on a quick drive along S-2

The Desert a Month after Monsoonal Rains
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CNPS-SD Helps With Rare Plant Surveys

By Justin Daniel, Vice President, Rare Plants Co-chair

With vaccinations allowing more contact outdoors and a workload a year behind, it's been a busy time a few of us to help some of our fantastic environmental conservancy organizations around San Diego County by assisting them in their rare plant surveys. The following are glimpses into some of the recent surveys. Come along for the ride and reach out to support our partners, too!

CNPS-SD Helps With Rare Plant Surveys
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The Mount Laguna Surprise

By Tom Oberbauer

…The next week, I drove up and hiked to the location I visited in December and sure enough, the display of Platystemon californica (above) was pretty amazing. Sheets of color extended across the slopes leading into the center of the meadow. I spent some time attempting to photograph and create video of the breeze gently shaking the small flowers. From this location, the view of the meadow ranges across its full length, extending more than three miles in the distance to the south. Laguna Lake also contained a good level of water reflecting the blue sky, apparently left over from the previous two good rainfall seasons. I attempted to capture the view of the flowers with the lake and end of the meadow in the distance. The breeze and the movement of the flowers in this manner always reminds me of when I was a child and my family visited Estes Park in Colorado and we observed alpine wildflowers…

The Mount Laguna Surprise

Dedication of the Betsy Cory Native Plant Garden in Chula Vista

By Kay Stewart

(L to R): Chris, Betty, Kay, Joan, and Emily plant and primp. The
boxes over the plants have beautiful information posters.

About four years ago Betsy Cory rallied her fellow gardeners in the Chula Vista Garden Club to plant scented California Native Plants in a courtyard garden in the Chula Vista South Branch Library. In addition, a series of beautiful information panels were installed that explain the garden. They were created by two of Betsy's friends.  

In October the garden was dedicated to Betsy's memory. A group of her friends gathered for the dedication. Several in attendance agreed to come for a maintenance party in a few weeks. So in November a group of five Garden club members met me at the garden and we spruced it up, and planted twenty more scented plants. The majority of plants were donated by the San Diego Chapter of CNPS. 

Robin, one of Betsy Cory's daughters, next to the Garden's sign.

The library's irrigation tech will keep an eye on the courtyard to be sure the new plants receive the water they need. A member of the garden club will also make a weekly visit to check up on it and to hand-water some lovely large blue pots with plants.

Members of the Garden Club are now working on ideas for how to bring classes to the garden so teachers can use it as part of their classroom curriculum.

(L to R) Sandy, Betty, Chris, Joan, Emily (Chula Vista Garden Club
members) and Kay (CNPS) after planting.

The Native Landscape Renovated at Cabrillo National Monument Visitor Center

The Native Landscape Renovated at Cabrillo National Monument Visitor Center

By Kay Stewart

The landscape that welcome visitors to Cabrillo National Monument Visitor Center has a beautiful new look. A great team has implemented a landscape plan developed as a collaborative effort to renovate the site. Together, they removed thirty years of non-native and weedy shrubs, and replanted plant species native to Point Loma. 

Working with the ACE (American Conservation Experience)

Working with the ACE (American Conservation Experience)

A report from the Habitat Restoration Committee by Bob Byrnes

We finished our 2017 partnership with ACE (American Conservation Experience) last Thursday.  We worked together for two weeks, with a break in between to let the heat wave dissipate.  ACE worked very hard, as usual - this is our third year with them.  They are paid for by grant funds, and are comprised of young (to me at least) college-age persons acquiring practical experience in the field of conservation and restoration.  We focused on Pomponio Ranch, a horse ranch located in the downstream area of the San Dieguito River Valley. 

Vegetation Communities and Climate Change

Vegetation Communities and Climate Change

By Frank Landis, Chairperson, Conservation Committee

Probably I should be writing an article about the virtues of planting large numbers of plants from the plant sale—which you should—but at the Chapter Council last Saturday, Greg Suba handed me a copy of “A Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment of California's Terrestrial Vegetation,” a document written in 2016 by James Thorne et al. of UC Davis for CDFW.  And, unfortunately for you, I've been reading this, rather than thinking about how to persuade you that gardens are one way for plants to migrate to avoid climate change. So, my apologies, you're going to get a semi-review of a document you're likely to never read. But it will be interesting nonetheless. I hope.

EarthLab Demo Gardens Thriving Thanks to CNPS-SD Mini-Grant

By Kay Stewart, Mini Grant coordinator with EarthLab Demo Gardens

The Groundwork EarthLab Education and Climate Action Center is a 4-acre site adjacent to Millennial Tech Middle School, at the junction of Euclid Ave and Highway 94. EarthLab is the creation of GroundWorks San Diego, a not-for-profit organization founded to teach San Diego children and their families how we can all enhance the earth’s ability to nurture life. CNPS-SD member Bruce Hanson helped found the organization in 2010.

EarthLab is divided into realms of the benign human/nature interfaces. A half-acre is growing organic crops. Another half-acre is a nursery for native plants used for canyon restoration projects. A small creek is cared for as a linkage for wildlife living in the Chollas Creek watershed. UCSD students have aquaculture and solar energy outdoor teaching labs in another area. And a quarter- acre has ornamental gardens with low-water plants. As this neighborhood is modified the Demo Gardens will be open to a walking route connecting North and South Encanto/Webster neighborhoods. Its mission is to become a beautiful site for teaching people how to have their own backyard native plant habitats and fruit trees for their own tables.

Mid-spring this year, grants from the US Fish and Wildlife Service and a $500 CNPS San Diego mini-grant awarded in 2016 bought native and drought-tolerant non-native plants. Volunteers from the US Navy, Coast Guard, and the community, and fifth-graders from local schools, planted a large portion of four gardens plans that were designed by CNPS-SD chapter members Scott Jones, David Clarke, Connie Beck, and Kay Stewart.

This month, October, the organizers will host a second planting party to infill areas that were left unplanted last spring. The organizers were granted a second $500 mini-grant by CNPS-SD to buy the native plants. On Saturday, October 28, 2017, 8:30 to noon, come join other volunteers to give these plants a great start in the EarthLab.

To learn more about this project, to volunteer, and to make donations or otherwise participate to support its work, see: http://groundworksandiego.org/. 

Pictures from the Fall Native Gardening Workshop September 16, 2017

All photos by Phillip Roullard

Jamul Mountains-June 2015

Jamul Mountains-June 2015

By Tom Oberbauer, Vice President CNPS-San Diego

The Jamul Mountains are not as well recognized as some of their nearby neighbors. They are over-shadowed by Otay Mountain at 3,500 feet and San Miguel Mountain at 2,567 feet since they top out at 2,059 feet at the highest point. The Jamul Mountain stand between SR-94 as it passes through the southern part of Jamul, and Proctor Valley.  Proctor Valley is notorious for the strange events that are purported to have occurred there: Proctor Valley monster and two headed cows; remnants of rumors from my youth growing up in the vicinity. Like San Miguel and Otay Mountains, the Jamul Mountains are composed of metavolcanic rock. This is volcanic rock that was deposited as part of a group of very tall mountains like the Andes, but in an island arc off the west coast of North America 106-108 million years ago (Kimbrough, 2014). Since I last climbed the Jamul Mountains in the late 1970’s, many things have changed including the fact that a large part of the surrounding land has been preserved, a steel barrier has been constructed to prevent OHV and trucks from driving cross-country over the slopes, and major fires have occurred. 

I set out on an overcast morning, overcast where I live, but clear and sunny by the time I reached Proctor Valley.  The temperature of the day was predicted to be in the mid 90’s. I drove down Proctor Valley Road and could see that some things have not changed, especially the washboard surface and the debris from target shooting along the side of the road. I parked my vehicle near a lone Eucalyptus tree and set off toward the peak.

The Revolution Should Face the Sun

By Frank Landis, Chairperson Conservation Committee

As you read this, I'll be working on a comment letter for the Newland Sierra EIR. That project inspired this essay because one of the things they're doing is trying to make the Newland Sierra development carbon neutral. This is a wonderful aspiration, but I'm not so sure that it shows up in the project design, and that's the subject of this month's essay. Unfortunately, carbon neutral developments aren't as simple as writing a few pages in an EIR and specifying that it should be possible to mount solar panels on otherwise conventional tract houses in a conventional development.

Guatay Mountain

By Tom Oberbauer, Vice President, CNPS-SD

I drove out east on I-8 fairly early in the morning.  The sky was heavily clouded to the point that mist was falling and it was necessary to use the windshield wipers.  However, east of Alpine, the sun burst through and the sky was perfectly clear with no hint of a cloud.  I was working on another rare plant survey to identify locations of Packera ganderi (Gander’s butterweed) and any other rare plants for the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) under their contract with AECOM.  I drove east toward the town of Guatay and onto the Old Highway 80, the old concrete slab two lane highway with that characteristic bumpety-bump sound from the tires hitting the tar-filled slab joints across the road. I remember when this was the only road east, before I-8 was constructed.  I needed to find a place to park and I first thought about parking at the Lutheran church parking area in the town and then I thought I would try the road through the village of Guatay to where it looked like a trail took off, a trail I had seen on Google Earth.  However, a few dozen yards down the road there were signs on both sides of the road that stated unauthorized vehicles will be towed at the owner’s expense.  Not only that, directly adjacent to that area was a towing service yard with an active tow truck; by active, I mean that the engine was running.

Climate Change: Option C and Its Exploits

By Frank Landis, Chairperson Conservation Committee

On June 10, the state CNPS Chapter Council passed the following position statement:

"Climate is a significant factor effecting natural ecosystems, including California flora.

"CNPS recognizes that climate change is real and that the current rate of global warming is faster than nonhuman natural forces would produce. Based on overwhelming evidence and broad scientific consensus, we hold that human actions, including greenhouse gas emissions, are major contributors to local and global climate change. This recognition follows the work of world leading institutions and organizations, including the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United States National Academy of Sciences, and the American Geophysical Union. CNPS recognizes that climate change is a current and future stress on California's native flora, especially when added to other human activities, including habitat loss, introduction of non-native species, and blocking landscape linkages.

"CNPS supports science-based, rational policies and actions, on the local, state, national, and international levels, that lead to the reduction of greenhouse gases without endangering California's native flora. We urge all Californians and CNPS members to do their part to protect California's native plants.