What's Growing On
Fall 2002

by Jason Lopez, Resources and Trails Manager

Experiencing Nature from the Trail

Park Rangers and volunteers share channels with several local parks and lakes. One day last month, the field staff overheard a quick conversation on the radio about a roadrunner. One of the participants was excited about his first close-up sighting of a roadrunner and had called to confirm what he was seeing. The River Park staff was a bit perplexed at first because we see roadrunners almost daily and the observation was made in a natural park similar to ours.

The greater roadrunner is a bird with character. A symbol of the desert, it can fly but prefers to run and has an intricate streaked pattern on its chest and back. Roadrunners fill an important role in the ecosystem by keeping rodents, snakes, and lizards at bay and providing a good-sized meal for mammals such as the coyote (if it could ever catch one). Hopefully, this roadrunner, that gave such joy to my peer, was re-establishing itself in the sanctuary of this park and does not represent one of the last remaining of its kind. As San Diego grows, there is more pressure on natural areas and therefore more need for management so that wildlife, like the greater roadrunner, will not disappear and become something we can only describe to the younger generations and not show them.

For the Ranger staff, three primary tools are used in the preservation of nature in the River Park’s recreation areas: education, trail management, and habitat restoration. Although for almost two years the field staff has focused on the construction of the historic Mule Hill/San Pasqual Valley Trail, all three tools were being utilized throughout the entire process. Education is probably the most effective tool we use to care for land. When people develop a greater understanding of the function of nature and the pressure we put upon it, they develop an appreciation of conservation issues. The Park's trails provide access to places where people can have an authentic interaction with nature. Trails also provide opportunities for more formal outdoor education programs to be implemented. Signs are placed along trails identifying natural resources, historic events, the do's and don'ts, and points of interests. Educational work parties were an important component of the trail construction process, and interpretive hikes, led by naturalists and historians, occurred immediately after the trail was opened.

The trails of the River Park that pass through wildlife habitat provide people access to nature with the goal of making a minimal impact to the natural resource. This is not always easily accomplished.   People want to explore, leave the trail, scale a rock, and climb to the top of a peak. These activities are important for many people because the experiences help people bond with nature. But these activities can be damaging in the areas around most of the River Park’s current trail system.

Some trails have hundreds of people using them every day. Leaving the trail, especially in areas with heavy urban pressure, will impact wildlife because the amount of remaining habitat acreage is relatively small. A hillside, dense with vegetation and wild looking, may seem resilient to a small amount of human activity, but in reality the habitat already suffers from human impacts, and increased recreational impact may be the straw that breaks the roadrunner’s back.

If trail users stay in designated areas and allow wildlife to exist without interference, then the trail should have a minimal impact. A trail can even help wildlife. With the trail comes a better route to move through disturbed areas occupied by prickly non-native grasslands and matted fields of perennial pepperweed. Also, with a trail come concerned citizens and land managers who organize interpretive tours, report pollution, and perform habitat restoration.

To have a genuine experience in nature, one does not need to venture into wildlife habitat. Quietly moving through the landscape on a trail and covering lots of ground is a much more effective way to see wildlife than rustling through brush. It is important not to take for granted what we have now. Open areas, wildlife habitat and species like the greater roadrunner, San Diego horned lizard, and the rosy boa constrictor seem to disappear quietly. By the time we’re aware of it, the loss is irrecoverable.