By Chance Austin-Brecher, Canyonlands Restoration Supervisor San Diego is one of the most biodiverse regions in the whole world, but it also has a rich cultural diversity and nowhere is that more evident than in the neighborhood that San Diego Canyonlands calls home: City Heights. There are upwards of 40 different languages and 100 dialects spoken here. There’s also five beautiful canyons nestled right in the heart of this neighborhood that our teams work hard to restore and maintain for the people to use and enjoy. City Heights has been a historically underserved neighborhood here in San Dieg ..read more

By Jose Jasso Jr., Canyonlands Outreach Coordaintor There was a small foxtail in our boot. Itching at us. Although we were running volunteer events consistently and a full-time restoration crew, we knew there were community members absent from these groups. Just out of reach. And that they could benefit from this work in more ways than one. With help from the Youth Community Access Grant, San Diego Foundation, Lucky Duck and other key partners, Canyonlands developed two programs that would allow individuals from populations less likely considered in the environmental field, to get their chance ..read more

By Chance Austin-Brecher California gnatcatchers (Polioptila californica) can be inconspicuous throughout the bulk of the year. They tend to quiet down during nesting season, but if you hike around San Diego shrublands long enough you’ll probably hear what sounds like the mewling of a tiny kitten. Seeing a gnatcatcher is another story entirely. They move quickly through California buckwheat, California sunflower, and coastal sagebrush, stopping only very briefly to eat an insect or two before moving on. They’re also small enough that it’s unlikely to really notice any discerning details beyond ..read more

By Chance Austin-Brecher Spring is in the air! I apologize for the cliche, but it is an indisputable fact that spring is in the air and that the birds are out there right now, flapping around and singing their songs.  I hope you’ll forgive this cliche as well: it’s true that San Diego really only has two seasons: spring and summer. Spring starts around November or December, when the rains begin, and really hits its stride in February, historically the rainiest month in these parts. It’s around this time that the plants awaken from their hibernation over the late summer months, bringing o ..read more

By Jose Jasso Photo Chris Parkes It’s breeding season and with that comes birds searching for a place to nest and raise their hatchlings. If they’re a bird of prey or raptor, it will have to be a spot high up, close to the heavens, that they will call home for at least a month. The go-to tree would most likely be the eucalyptus tree, as they are abundant and are some of the tallest trees reaching up to 300 feet in height, and that can be found in canyons and open spaces. However, Eucalyptus trees are an invasive tree species, so where else could these San Diego raptors call home? The issue is ..read more

For women’s history month this year, San Diego Canyonlands wanted to highlight an ecologist whose work still influences us today even though her first findings were published in the 1930’s. Not just any Ecologist but the first professional female ecologist in California, Edith A. Purer. An advocate for protecting green spaces and one of the first to identify and study vernal pools, an endangered type of ecosystem home to rare plants and wildlife. What’s a vernal pool? These systems are found atop a flat mesa or in some chamise chaparral habitat strands. They are basins that can be six inches ..read more

Palm Reading By Chance Austin-Brecher Photo: Brian Wintz, Restoration Supervisor Did you see something a little jarring in the sky this past December? Something slightly disorienting flying by? Maybe you were driving to work, cruising down the 8 somewhere between SDSU and the 15. If you live in Del Cerro or Allied Gardens, maybe you were just walking out your front door to get the morning paper. Perhaps you’re a college freshman who stayed behind for the holidays, taking a walk along the northern end of a deserted campus. If that was you, maybe you saw a helicopter lifting palm trees out of N ..read more

(photo by Jen Ochoa, Outreach Coordinator, San Diego Canyonlands) Mother Nature by Chance Austin-Brecher, Restoration Supervisor, San Diego Canyonlands Motherhood is hard work. It’s dirty, it’s exhausting, it’s often thankless, and sometimes it requires hunting, paralyzing, and dragging giant spiders long distances for your larvae to feed on.  Tarantula hawk wasps are an infamous member of the family Pompilidae, consisting of over 5,000 species of wasps that mostly prey on spiders as a food source for their young. The process is quite grisly, but also a very interesting one that’s calc ..read more

Palm Reading By Chance Austin-Brecher Photo: Brian Wintz, Restoration Supervisor Did you see something a little jarring in the sky this past December? Something slightly disorienting flying by? Maybe you were driving to work, cruising down the 8 somewhere between SDSU and the 15. If you live in Del Cerro or Allied Gardens, maybe you were just walking out your front door to get the morning paper. Perhaps you’re a college freshman who stayed behind for the holidays, taking a walk along the northern end of a deserted campus. If that was you, maybe you saw a helicopter lifting palm trees out of N ..read more

Creating places of healing for people in need By: Jose Jasso (he/him) Canyonlands Outreach Coordinator Nature is a resource, and like any must-have resource can be abundant in certain communities and scarce in another. Southeast San Diego is one such area where the lack of access to nature spaces is being tackled. We talked to Khalid Alexander Founder and President of Pillars of the Community, an organization where community members come together to learn about one another, foster relationships, and mobilize for community change and social justice.   Inspired by natural healing spac ..read more