By Csaba Petre
On the morning of Tuesday, June 24, the fog was thick over the jetty and dog beach as I made my way down to the meeting point: the triangular grassy lawn between the Ocean Villa Inn and the bike path next to the river. 30-odd people were already lining up in a rough circle around the pop-up tent. The crowd was delightfully diverse, with a few older, retired couples, as well as pairs and groups of younger, college-aged friends.
This loose society of volunteers gathers here at the river mouth once a month on Tuesday mornings to help restore the San Diego River Estuary, a delicate coastal ecosystem. Specifically, the aims include protecting native and endangered plant- and wildlife and preserving and improving water quality. The event is organized by the San Diego River Park Foundation, whose ambitious goal is to restore a green belt along all 52 miles of the San Diego River.
Our animated young host handed out gloves to those who didn’t have any, and organized us into groups of volunteers: one group to perform invasive plant removal among the dunes, and the other group to build wooden fencing along the paths to protect the native vegetation. The process was interrupted briefly by a white golden retriever running up and dropping his ball in front of a successive series of volunteers, who all obligingly played a round of fetch while listening to instructions. The group laughed, chatted, and everyone was already having fun.
The fence-building group, limited in capacity, was full before I had registered that I had a choice, so I joined the invasive plant removers. With a sun hat and gardening gloves in hand, I helped lug large scrap bags to the river trails and got to work. Our aim would be to remove as many plants as we could of the invasive species, such as crown daisies and iceplants, while taking care to not disturb other, native species.
As a person of dubious gardening skill, I approached the task with a slight apprehension at the start, double-checking with other volunteers frequently that I was not inadvertently depopulating the region of already threatened plantlife. Soon enough though, we had all gotten into the swing of things, with the scrap bags filling quickly. The work was calming, and the result, given 20-odd people working on the same stretches of inter-trail vegetation, was satisfying: once we had learned to tell the plants apart, we could all tell that progress was being made. I left with a new respect for the surprisingly immediate impact that local conservation efforts can make.
The event usually goes for about three hours. The group meets once a month at this location, as well as once a month in Mission Valley to work on that stretch of the river. The next river mouth habitat restoration will be Tuesday, September 23rd. No experience necessary, just a love for our local native habitats. https://sandiegoriver.galaxydigital.com/need/detail/?need_id=1116029
Had to thank the author of this story. It inspired me and a couple friends to check out the event this past Tuesday. It was a lot of fun meeting new people, learning about our local native and non-native plants, and checking out all the birds along our river mouth. I was surprised we were the only local OBceans out volunteering. I would encourage everyone who’s interested to check it out. I will definitely be back to the next one which I believe is Oct 14