Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

40 acres and a dream for Mission Bay

Kendall-Frost Marsh isn’t as big as it should be

Visitors and volunteers gather before embarking on a morning marsh tour
Visitors and volunteers gather before embarking on a morning marsh tour

A January 30 open-house event provided community members, students, and a handful of interested passers-by a rare glimpse into a piece of land on the edge of Mission Bay that contains the last bit of natural habitat remaining from before the bay was dredged and turned into an aquatic park in the 1950s.

"It's an opportunity for the community to get out into the Kendall-Frost Marsh and see this amazing bit of salt marsh we have here in Mission Bay — it's the only 40 acres remaining of the 4000 acres that were originally here," said San Diego Audubon Society's Rebecca Schwartz of the tenth annual Love Your Wetlands Day event.

Sponsored
Sponsored

"Right now the marsh exists only behind this chain-link fence. That's because it's so small that it basically can't protect itself from things like trampling hikers, predators, cats, and dogs, et cetera," said Schwartz. "But by expanding the marsh into larger habitat we won't have to be so protective of it. We'll be able to have things like boardwalks, a nature center or observation overlooks, even opportunities for kayaking or paddle boarding — things that get people out and active in the marsh."

That hoped-for result may be a long time in the making, however. ReWild Mission Bay, a coalition pushing for the marsh expansion project, is in the middle of a three-year study on what lands, including those in the Kendall-Frost area and others including the current sites of Campland on the Bay and the De Anza Mobile Home Park, could be restored as salt marsh. After that, funding has to be identified and a final plan for the project drafted.

"The goal of ReWild Mission Bay is to protect these existing 40 acres, and to expand up to 170 acres of salt marsh here at the mouth of Rose Creek in the northeast corner of the bay," Schwartz said.

In the meantime, the group is calling for volunteers to get involved in restoring habitat on the land they do have to work with.

"San Diego Audubon partners with the UC Natural Reserve System to host community restoration events" aside from the once-a-year treks into the marsh that are open to the public, said Schwartz.

"There's an area that's been graded to provide a more gentle slope for what we call 'transition' or 'upland' habitat — when we did that we also removed a lot of invasive species," she said, pointing to an area where a team of student volunteers is currently at work with shovels and rolls of netting. "Next, we'll be working with community members to bring in more native plants."

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Escondido planners nix office building switch to apartments

Not enough open space, not enough closets for Hickory Street plans
Next Article

Syrian treat maker Hakmi Sweets makes Dubai chocolate bars

Look for the counter shop inside a Mediterranean grill in El Cajon
Visitors and volunteers gather before embarking on a morning marsh tour
Visitors and volunteers gather before embarking on a morning marsh tour

A January 30 open-house event provided community members, students, and a handful of interested passers-by a rare glimpse into a piece of land on the edge of Mission Bay that contains the last bit of natural habitat remaining from before the bay was dredged and turned into an aquatic park in the 1950s.

"It's an opportunity for the community to get out into the Kendall-Frost Marsh and see this amazing bit of salt marsh we have here in Mission Bay — it's the only 40 acres remaining of the 4000 acres that were originally here," said San Diego Audubon Society's Rebecca Schwartz of the tenth annual Love Your Wetlands Day event.

Sponsored
Sponsored

"Right now the marsh exists only behind this chain-link fence. That's because it's so small that it basically can't protect itself from things like trampling hikers, predators, cats, and dogs, et cetera," said Schwartz. "But by expanding the marsh into larger habitat we won't have to be so protective of it. We'll be able to have things like boardwalks, a nature center or observation overlooks, even opportunities for kayaking or paddle boarding — things that get people out and active in the marsh."

That hoped-for result may be a long time in the making, however. ReWild Mission Bay, a coalition pushing for the marsh expansion project, is in the middle of a three-year study on what lands, including those in the Kendall-Frost area and others including the current sites of Campland on the Bay and the De Anza Mobile Home Park, could be restored as salt marsh. After that, funding has to be identified and a final plan for the project drafted.

"The goal of ReWild Mission Bay is to protect these existing 40 acres, and to expand up to 170 acres of salt marsh here at the mouth of Rose Creek in the northeast corner of the bay," Schwartz said.

In the meantime, the group is calling for volunteers to get involved in restoring habitat on the land they do have to work with.

"San Diego Audubon partners with the UC Natural Reserve System to host community restoration events" aside from the once-a-year treks into the marsh that are open to the public, said Schwartz.

"There's an area that's been graded to provide a more gentle slope for what we call 'transition' or 'upland' habitat — when we did that we also removed a lot of invasive species," she said, pointing to an area where a team of student volunteers is currently at work with shovels and rolls of netting. "Next, we'll be working with community members to bring in more native plants."

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Poway’s schools, faced with money squeeze, fined for voter mailing

$105 million bond required payback of nearly 10 times that amount
Next Article

Classical Classical at The San Diego Symphony Orchestra

A concert I didn't know I needed
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader