![\"Tershia](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/golden-hill-hike-300x199.jpg\" "\\"golden")
<\/a>It\u2019s also one of the best examples of the value such urban oases offer.<\/p>\n
Take a walk through its 12 acres of peaceful space in Golden Hill, bordered from Cedar to C streets, between 31st and 33rd. You\u2019ll smell the sage, ponder the leafy pepper trees and trod a trail which has been softened with loads of sawdust.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t always so inviting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we started, it had many signs of blight: diminishing native ecosystems, many invasive weeds, drug encampments, a fire and even signs of prostitution,\u201d says the 32nd Street Canyon Task Force on the Web site of the Friends of 32nd Street Canyon (www.32ndstreetcanyon.org).<\/p>\n
Tershia d\u2019Elgin, a member of the Friends of 32nd Street Canyon, sometimes she calls herself the \u201cbusybody of 32nd Street Canyon.\u201d We caught her in the canyon leading a group of fourth-graders from Albert Einstein Academy on an exploration.<\/p>\n
\u201cFive people started the group in 2000 to keep the (San Diego Unified) school district from developing the canyon,\u201d she told us. \u201cThat threat galvanized friends and neighbors.\u201d Development threats are a common refrain among many of the “friends” groups of local canyons, which were originally sponsored by the San Diego Sierra Club and are now held together by San Diego Canyonlands(http:\/\/sdcanyonlands.org\/).<\/p>\n
D\u2019Elgin, an award-winning writer and editor, also serves on the City of San Diego\u2019s Forest Advisory Board. \u201cI\u2019m from Colorado, where there are forests,” she said. “This kind of vegetation didn\u2019t mean anything to me.\u201d But now she\u2019ll pick a sage leaf and ask a child to smell its lovely fragrance. Or she\u2019ll point to the red berries of what appears to be a holly bush and point out its real name is toyon. \u201cThey named Hollywood after this berry bush, but it really should be Toyonland,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I moved to Golden Hill about a block away from the canyon, my friend, Dave Buchanan, was doing restoration here,\u201d said d\u2019Elgin. \u201cHe taught me the value of native plants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Native plants in this coastal sage scrub habitat are essential to a vibrant local ecosystem. The canyon\u2019s \u201cself-sustaining carbon-sequestering greenscape also diminishes air and water pollution and offsets the \u2018urban heat island\u2019 effect,\u201d according to the 32nd Street Canyon Task Force. \u201cOur coastal canyons are literally this region\u2019s life support, supplying fresher air and water, energy conservation and many other critical benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n
To d\u2019Elgin, the canyon isn\u2019t only about habitat. \u201cIt\u2019s also about human well-being,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has shown me the value of community, and how we can make a difference. Just like the way plants and animals help each other, this feels like a good model.\u201d She also noted that Golden Hill residents tend to respond to local needs and turn out to help.<\/p>\n
Indeed, in just the last few years, nearly 10 tons of debris has been removed from 32nd Street Canyon and some 4,000 native plants have been planted. Much of the labor comes from neighbors who live near it or children who learn in it.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 9 when we were there, dozens of fourth-graders from Albert Einstein Academy (www.alberteinsteinacademy.org), a charter school at 30th and Ash Street just a few blocks away, were spending a half-day field trip in the canyon with d\u2019Elgin and representatives from the Ocean Discovery Institute. They were planting native sage and buckwheat bushes while learning about this \u201cdry wetland\u201d and how important it is to the region\u2019s ecosystem.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a movement afoot to combine all the vital canyons that help define San Diego\u2019s topography — even its beauty. \u201cWithout canyons, San Diego would be a hotter, smoggier slab of humankind,\u201d notes the task force of the 32nd Street Canyon on its Web site.<\/p>\n
San Diego Civic Solutions goes even further: \u201cThe natural infrastructure of our place — the fundamental beauty — if not the uniqueness that makes San Diego special, are the canyons that connect all neighborhoods. We have significant quantity of these wonderful natural places; the question is, do we love them enough, do we appreciate them enough to sustain their presence,\u201d the organization stated in a paper proposing establishment of a Canyonlands Park throughout the San Diego region. Read it on the 32nd Street Canyon\u2019s Web site, in the appendix of the Canyon Policy Portfolio.<\/p>\n
But first, take a walk through 32nd Street Canyon and see what natural beauty can do for you.<\/p>\n
To reach the trailheads: Download a good map of 32nd Street Canyon from the city\u2019s Park and Recreation Department Web site: http:\/\/www.sandiego.gov\/park-and-recreation\/pdf\/32ndsttrailmap.pdf. There are three main entrances: on Cedar Street at 31st Street, at the dead end of 32nd Street at B Street, and on C Street between 32nd and 33rd.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Urban Hike: Golden Hill’s 32nd Street Canyon Wasn’t Always So Nice By Priscilla Lister Golden Hill\u2019s 32nd Street Canyon is one of the best-kept canyons in our mid-city neighborhood. It\u2019s also one of the best examples of the value such urban oases offer. Take a walk through its 12 acres of peaceful space in Golden […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":243026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Urban Hike: Golden Hill's 32nd Street Canyon Wasn't Always So Nice","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}