Spring Update

What a wonderful few months we've had along the beautiful San Diego River! Lots of rain, many wonderful accomplishments by the volunteers of the San Diego River Park Foundation and the Friends of the San Diego River Mouth. We've been very fortunate to have very successful events to help keep up our restoration efforts of this rare and important site where the San Diego River meets the mighty Pacific Ocean.
March was a great month for the river mouth location. In addition to our regularly scheduled Friends of the River Mouth events (4th Saturday of odd numbered months, January, March, May etc.) a large group of military families from Lincoln Military Housing came out for a group event and planted over 100 native plants! Kids and families had a great time and did a wonderful job in helping to restore this area.
During our regularly scheduled event on March 27th we had over 100 people turnout on a bright and warm Saturday morning to help us care for this rare and sensitive site.
Educational tours were given by Botanist and river mouth friend Mike Nieto and San Diego River Park Foundation board member and noted environmental advocate Jim Peugh.
After the tours, volunteers were split into groups and given examples of specific non native plants to search for and remove. We ended up removing 130 bags of invasive plants! That would equal easily 1 ton of invasives!
To top off the days event a very exciting discovery was made by Ranger Lisa.
She spotted the presence of Nutall's Lotus! Here is a picture and additional information:



Lotus nuttallianus is a species of legume known by the common names Nuttall's lotus and wire bird's-foot trefoil. It is native Baja California and just into San Diego County, California, where it is a resident of coastal habitat, such as beaches and bluffs. It is a rare plant of the highly developed coastline in and around the city of San Diego,

Join us for an open house and tour in celebration of River Days on May 15th from 9am-Noon. For more information on how you can get involved call Richard at 619.297.7380 or email him at richard@sandiegoriver.org

San Diego River Mouth Update January 2010

Happy New Year! 2010 promises to be another great year for the San Diego River. As more and more people are beginning to realize the challenges faced by our environment and the loss of irreplaceable habitats, we are beginning to see a groundswell of volunteers, organizations and companies seeking to create action. It's not too late, together we can make a difference. So far in 2010 there are several companies that have signed up to help us to continue our restoration and maintenance efforts at the mouth of the San Diego River. On January 17, the Environmental Bankers Association will be working with us to restore native vegetation to the site as well as help remove this areas biggest threat, nonnative invasive plant species. With the rain comes the cheese weed, the crown daisies, the invasive grasses and more. It is up to us humans really become willing stewards of nature and work to reverse the damage and neglect we have caused. That said, I invite you to our next Friends of the River Mouth event on 1/23/10 at 9am, Chick-Fil-A will be providing breakfast that morning.
As always, we will provide all tools and supplies. Groups and volunteers of all ages are welcomed to help. For more info call 619.297.7380 or email volunteer@sandiegoriver.org