Riparian Ecosystem Saved in San Clemente Canyon

To the tree lover, to the nature lover, to anyone who cares about Southern California’s natural heritage, it’s a painful sight: 200-year-old oaks uprooted to make room for a suburb or a superhighway. The toppled oaks, their roots drying in the sun, provide incriminating testimony against a culture that is still searching for a meaningful land ethic.

Many a Southern California ecosystem has suffered from this lack of a land ethic--mountain slopes, estuaries, native grasslands, to name a few--but somehow it’s in the oak- and sycamore-shaded canyons where the carnage is most apparent.

Developers love canyons and each year the forces of Cut & Fill and Grade & Pave engulf more and more of them. Largely obliterated are canyons with names like Trabuco and Laurel, Santa Ynez and Arroyo Burro, and hundreds more. From the canyons of Canyon Country to the canyons of Chula Vista, our riparian zones, as ecologists call them, are fast disappearing.

Happily, once in a while an oak-shaded canyon is preserved.

Activists to the Rescue

Oak lovers and environmentalists can take heart--and a few lobbying lessons--from the story of San Diego’s San Clemente Canyon. When California 52 was under construction a decade ago, its proposed route traveled the canyon bottom. Homeowners and environmental activists worked to save the canyon and divert the highway to a course parallel to it.

Today, much of San Clemente Canyon and a couple of small, steep side canyons are protected by Marian Bear Park. Ecologically intact riparian areas are becoming increasingly scarce in Southern California and particularly rare in San Diego County, so the preservation of San Clemente Canyon is especially welcome.

Marian Bear Park, managed by the city of San Diego, offers a shady retreat for walkers, runners and hikers. An old road runs the length of the park; it’s an easy saunter for the whole family. An even easier hike is along the park’s nature trail, which gives an introduction to the riparian world. Tables scattered beneath the oaks suggest a picnic.

San Clemente Canyon is startlingly isolated from the rest of the natural world, but very close to a man-made one: It’s bounded by interstates 805 and 5 on its east and west ends, respectively, by houses on its south side, and by California 52 on its north. Because the canyon is so close to San Diego’s two main freeways, it’s a great place to wait out peak traffic periods and a nice, off-the-tourist-beat place to relax.

While the canyon’s oaks, sycamores and seasonal stream were saved, its silence was not. Because of San Clemente Canyon’s proximity to the 52, the best times for a stroll are weekend mornings.

Directions to the trailhead: A bit north of San Diego, in the vicinity of University City and North Clairemont, join California 52 by heading west from Interstate 805 or east from Interstate 5. You’ll see San Clemente Canyon directly to the south of the highway. Exit on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard and turn into Marian Bear Memorial Park. Near the parking area is the signed beginning of the nature trail.

The hike: A pamphlet, available at the trailhead, is keyed to the nature trail, which heads west along the canyon bottom. The trail, which could use some maintenance and better interpretation, makes about a one-mile loop.

One canyon dweller to avoid is poison oak. Masses of it cover the canyon walls and grow among the trees.

To reach the taller and more handsome oaks and sycamores, head east up the canyon bottom. The virtually flat road crosses the seasonal creek a couple of times. During dry months and our seemingly endless drought, you won’t find any water in the creek.

After a good winter rain, some rock-hopping or wading might be necessary.

The last mile of the trail, between Genesee Avenue and Interstate 805, leads to the densest stands of oak and sycamore. Trail’s end is the highway; beyond Interstate 805, San Clemente Canyon belongs to Miramar Naval Air Station.

San Clemente Canyon Trail

1-mile nature trail loop,

4 1/2-mile round-trip tour

of Marian Bear Park