SAN DIEGO — Under the cloudy skies in East San Diego, crews from San Diego Urban Corps and handfuls of volunteers got to work Friday morning bringing back native habitats to three of the city’s canyons. Like many open spaces in San Diego, native plant species have been pushed out by invasive plants.
"Non-native species haven't co-evolved with other native species that live here," said Justin Kemp, a supervisor with Urban Corps. "So if you have a food resource for a certain species, and that gets replaced with a non native one, which it cannot eat, then that's obviously a problem for the for the native habitat."
Not only are he and his crew removing non-native species like fennel and mustard seed. But they’re planting native shrubs that used to thrive here.
Colored flags placed on the hillside of Radio Canyon in East San Diego mark where volunteers will plant different species of native plants. The yellow flag for California Buckwheat, orange for Sage Brush, blue for White Sage and green for Brittle Brush.
The plan is to plant 310 shrubs today, which will hopefully give habitats for birds, nectar for pollinators and provide food for all wildlife.
"The amount of vegetative cover that we have is really important," Kemp said. "It's going to mitigate climate change is going to help filter pollutants out of the air."
It’s important that everyone, especially those who enjoy San Diego’s many open spaces help protect the city’s delicate ecosystems. Urban Corps is giving native California plants a chance to thrive and boosting the overall health of the local ecology.
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