San Diego City Councilmember Joe LaCava issued a proclamation declaring Saturday, Feb. 4th, to be Love Your Wetlands Day in the City of San Diego, in honor of ReWild Mission Bay’s annual Love Your Wetlands Day event to increase awareness about restoring native salt marsh habitat at Kendall-Frost Marsh Reserve. The proclamation was passed by council on consent.
ReWild’s Cristina Santa Maria and Karina Ornelas, who serve as conservation manager and conservation outreach coordinator with the San Diego Audubon Society, were on-hand at City Hall to receive the councilmember’s proclamation.
Councilmember LaCava, who represents District 1 and serves as chair of the City of San Diego’s Environment Committee, said he’s “proud to highlight many of the local efforts to celebrate, restore, and protect wetlands throughout San Diego,” which also include portions of wetlands and watersheds from the Tijuana River Valley in the south to Los Peñasquitos Creek in the north, in addition to watersheds that empty into San Diego Bay and Mission Bay – most notably Rose Creek, which provides the fresh water on which the survival of Kendall-Frost Marsh depends.
Love Your Wetlands Day offers San Diegans a fantastic opportunity to explore Kendall-Frost Marsh and experience one of our community’s great conservation assets up close, participate in activities to explore and restore Mission Bay’s wetlands ahead of ongoing sea level rise, and better understand the role coastal wetlands and salt marshes play in increasing climate resiliency, sequestering carbon, and preserving rapidly-vanishing native habitat for threatened and endangered species like the Ridgeway’s Rail and Belding’s Savannah Sparrow.
This year’s Love Your Wetlands Day will double as a Community Climate Action Day as ReWild Mission Bay, San Diego Audubon, and the UC Natural Reserve System partner with California Climate Action Corpsto feature guided kayak clean-ups of the marsh, birding, presentations from local scientists, cultural activities with Indigenous leaders, fish seining, and native seed planting, with remarks from UCSD and elected officials.
Councilmember LaCava’s office has indicated he will attend Love Your Wetlands Day this Saturday. His district includes the San Diego neighborhoods of Bird Rock, Carmel Valley, Crown Point, Del Mar Mesa, La Jolla, Pacific Beach, Pacific Highlands Ranch, Torrey Hills, and Torrey Pines, along with the main campus of the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve.