Where The SUN, Southwestern College meets the WiLDCOAST

South Bay wetlands restoration brings together SD county residents

2011-03-02T08:15:00.000-08:00

South Bay wetlands restoration brings together SD county residents

Shannon Dougherty, San Diego Audubon Society

Rediscovering a grand South Bay treasure

2011-02-26T21:02:00.000-08:00

The Human Chord-Rediscovering a grand South Bay treasure

http://www.southwesterncollegesun.com/arts/wildcoast-founder-s-inspiring-book-celebrates-miracle-of-our-coasts-1.2010006

2011-02-24T08:51:00.000-08:00

The Sun- WiLDCOAST founder's inspiring book celebrates miracle of our coasts

By Alex Alberts

New Book Explores Beach Culture, Conservation in California and Mexico - Imperial Beach, CA Patch

2011-01-28T19:22:00.000-08:00

New Book Explores Beach Culture, Conservation in California and Mexico - Imperial Beach, CA Patch

The Pure Joy of Surfing - Imperial Beach, CA Patch

2011-01-13T06:36:00.000-08:00

The Pure Joy of Surfing - Imperial Beach, CA Patch

Another great column by Dr. Serge Dedina!

Volunteers needed January 22 at WiLDCOAST-Join the fun!

2011-01-10T18:02:00.000-08:00

The Real Baja - Imperial Beach, CA Patch

2011-01-05T10:50:00.000-08:00

Serge recently began writing a column for Imperial Beach Patch.com. He certainly knows how to tell a good story. Here is his latest column along with a link for his previous ones. Enjoy the story.

The Real Baja - Imperial Beach, CA Patch

http://imperialbeach.patch.com/users/serge-dedina/articles?page=1

Surfing by the I.B. pier.

Study tracks turtles journey across South Atlantic - AP

2011-01-05T06:58:00.000-08:00

Here are some very interesting findings on Leatherback turtles released today.

Study tracks turtles journey across South Atlantic - Associated Press

Leatherback turtles traced on Atlantic 'danger' trips-BBC

California Fish and Game Commission pass final Southern California Marine Life Protected Areas

2010-12-28T09:57:00.000-08:00

California Fish and Game Commission pass final Southern California Marine Life Protected Areas-San Diego News Room

NEW MARINE PROTECTED AREA: The mouth of the Tijuana River is newly designated as a State Marine Conservation Area by a recent vote by the California Fish and Game Commission.

"Dr. Serge Dedina, WiLDCOAST executive director, said the designation of the coastal and marine region at the mouth of the Tijuana River as an MPA is a significant step in its efforts to protect the ecological and economic values of our natural resources. He said WiLDCOAST recently stopped a $75-million Army Corps dredging project that would have destroyed the reef and used its nomination as an MPA to justify its efforts.

“Thirty years after standing in front of bulldozers to stop the destruction of the Tijuana Estuary, I surf the offshore reefs of the federally protected estuary and recently declared marine protected area,” he said. “It was only until the MPA process that this amazing reef—home to our resident pod of bottlenose dolphins and probably the most important leopard shark spawning sight in Southern California—was officially recognized as a real ecosystem.”"

Albert Fulcher

2010-12-26T09:56:00.000-08:00

Albert Fulcher Before and after the rain.

American Coot at the J Street Marsh

2010-12-24T08:16:00.000-08:00

J Street Marsh-After days of torrential rainfall in San Diego an American Coot swims through an oily, sudsy film from days of inland runoff.

Photos-Albert H. Fulcher

Imperial Beach sand restoration on hold - The Sun - News

2010-12-21T07:49:00.000-08:00

Imperial Beach sand restoration on hold - The Sun - News
By Anthony Dacong

Imperial Beach, Calif.-Albert Fulcher

las islas de Coronado desde el estuario de Tijuana

2010-12-21T07:47:00.000-08:00

A ‘Serge’ of hope - The Sun - Campus

2010-12-20T09:33:00.000-08:00

A ‘Serge’ of hope - The Sun - Campus

WiLDCOAST-Executive Director Dr. Serge Dedina looks at unusual red tide at the pier in Imperial Beach, Calif.

Tijuana teams up for October’s Tijuana River Valley clean up

2010-10-27T21:28:00.000-07:00

Southwestern Sun staff writer Bianca Villegas and staff photojournalist Andrea Hernandez went and spent the day in one of Tijuana's larges clean up efforts taking place in several spots along the border. October has been a massive effort of WiLDCOAST and its partners on both sides of the border. The Tijuana River Valley clean up this month has been a tremendous success with the help of all of the organizations and the individual community people who come out in swarms to protect the precious resources of the Tijuana River.
Bianca and Andrea have a story to tell, one in words and the other through the eye of a lens.

By Bianca Villegas

As familiar as I am with the city of Tijuana it was not easy to reach the destination of this particular clean up of the Tijuana river canyon. Feeling like a tourist I made my way to a student and asked for their teacher. I talked to maestra Claudia Ines Sanchez, who is the social coordinator at Lazaro Cardenas high school. Starting at 8am, her students were picking waste off the Tijuana canal in the community of Los Rosales.

Photo credtis/Andrea Hernandez

Students and teachers have the interest to support this cause because they do not want the waste to be released into the ocean. Calidad de Vida is the organization that since 2008 encourages the participation in these cleanups, and they don’t want to break this habit. They have formed groups of volunteers that meet on Saturdays in different checkpoints throughout several cities south of the border.

In the playas area, the high school Reina Isabel collaborates with Calidad de Vida to orchestrate these cleanups. Most of the volunteers are either citizens of the communities, or students that became interested by hearing about the programs and events at their schools.

There are clean up site “checkpoints” throughout Tijuana and reaching all the way to Ensenada. These clean ups have been going on for 10 years.

Alejandro Reyes was the site captain at this particular checkpoint. He was also part of organizing the event Salvemos la Playa, which comprised of various ecologically friendly organizations in Tijuana and businesses that support them, who strive to maintain the beaches of Tijuana clean.

In attendance were 38 students in one area of the clean up. Around 50-60 were cleaning on a separate site. The organizers of Calidad de Vida and theatre students from the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California (UABC) were set up in another site.

The students organize the trash at their high schools according to a registry to determine which is the most common trash found in the canal. From their respective schools they send the trash to the dump and the rest of the classified waste to the recycling center.

Every site has a different workshop: sports, health, and various creative activities. Environmentalists make up the leadership of these organizations. Young themselves, the organizers understand the importance of implementing the efforts of the youth.

Reyes said they urgently need the help of young volunteers, which is why they recruit at high schools where they require hours of social volunteering.

He believed it was necessary to stress that:

“From the people of this same community there hasn’t been much response. They are indifferent, but it is hard to believe that they don’t care about waste. In order to progress, one has to clean up first.”

Cleaning up the Tijuana river canyon is about a quality of living space, hygiene, and education. This is a program for the bettering of quality of life. September was the month of action for this organization, Tijuana River Action Network. Every month there are different cleanups throughout 20 sites in Tecate, Rosarito and Playas de Tijuana.

Like Alejandro Reyes Carmen Romo, Gabriel Sanchez, Claudette Ramirez and Jose Segovia have been working for Calidad de Vida since 3 years ago.

About the organization, Carmen Romo said,

“Nacimos tratando de promover calidad de la vida urbana” We [this organization] were born with the intention to promote the quality of urban life.

Los organizadores come from a background in architecture or engineering.

They people need to live is to feel secure and comfortable and aesthetically pleasing, in a clean place. Calidad de Vida also promotes the cycling movement by repainting bike lanes. They have increased vigilance in the malecon for more security.

Calidad de Vida has been using a technique called YANTEK, which consists of shaving down old tires arranging them as seats or decorations at parks. They have also started a movement to demand the use of permeable pavements: hexagons made of cement and gravel, so the water passes through when it rains.

Parque binacional was developed on a stretch of land that is bisected by the international border with the purpose of educating about conservation for native plant life. Inciting environmental education in neighborhoods or communities, Calidad de Vida has been maintaining this space clean and sustainable as their message to the community.

This organization has created a compost center, in order to create more fertile earth. At the town council and airport. Want to convey a message to the suburban communities. The earth is used in gardens and schools, where growth and learning takes place. The message seems clear to me: a clean canyon can mean a new life.

Montserrat Torres, 17, a physics major from the high school Lazaro Cardenas has been participating every year. There is promotion in her school she says, but participation is optional. Torres said:

“Having clean ups of the canal is a good idea”.

Present also are the students of visual arts from UABC. The students are complying with their social service requirement by giving workshops on how to maintain the place clean, and planning an art activity to do with the community. They take these workshops from site to site like gypsies. The students use recyclable materials for their art supplies.

UABC’s Tania Munoz, 24, theatre major. Munoz said,

“Queremos implementar el arte en el reciclaje y el reciclaje en el arte”. The students make their rounds through their neighborhoods clad in feather and sequin masks, inviting the people to participate. An entertaining nomadic invitation to social aid. Collective efforts are silently enticing, the art and the cleaning, the work and the play are something to be enjoyed as a community.

The next artistic endeavor of the visual arts students will be to paint the trash containers that are used to classify recyclables and waste with the people of the communities. The promise of a quality future is attainable when the community takes part in rebuilding their own home. The classification of waste needs to be reevaluated, much like our knowledge; the trash needs to be weeded from material that can be reused in consideration of progress.

Photo credits/Andrea Hernandez

Effie May Trail

2010-10-14T18:50:00.000-07:00

WiLDCOAST has spent all of this month cleaning up. I was able to make it to the Effie May Trail clean up and I was amazed at what I saw. Never walking on the riverbed, I was astounded by the thick growth that totally envelops the trail. And then, there was trash. Lots of trash.

Paloma, Stephanie and Ben were armed and ready and had a lot of helping hands, and none of them were afraid to get their hands dirty. Being a riverbed, many things had to be dug up, buried by flowing water during the rainy seasons.

The number of cameras there was ridiculous, but then I realized that Outside the Lens was out in full force with cameras and video. Rachel Lebowitz said they had 19 volunteers working on this educational project. What a phenomenal program it is and I hope to work with and write about them again.

Kristina Ross, community events coordinator, I Love a Clean San Diego came out in support and force.

California State San Marcos came heavily armed with the Alpha Pi Sigma representing.

Once again, they proved what a community could accomplish together. With 91 volunteers, more than 1,000 pounds of trash and 75 tires were removed in a morning.

On the same day, I sent some of my peers to cover the clean-up effort in Tijuana. I will be posting their story and pictures soon. I can tell you now they became WiLDCOAST fans. It cannot be helped. It's contagious.

Photo credits/Albert Fulcher

It's your Park-Protect it! Otay Valley Regional Park

2010-09-26T09:01:00.000-07:00

Otay Valley Regional Park Clean-up

From the very young to the young at heart, the South Bay community came together. More than140 people joined WiLDCOAST on Saturday September 25 in the Otay Valley Regional Park (OVRP) to pick up trash.

WiLDCOAST OVRP Coordinator Katie Westfall and OVRP Park Ranger John Barone led the group in the much need removal of trash that consistently is dumped in the park, creating a hazard to the park and the wildlife that depends on it.
Let the pictures tell the story.

WiLDCOAST Katie Westfall and OVRP Park Ranger John Barone

Immediate Press Release from WiLDCOAST--Organizations Oppose Placement of Power Plant in the Otay Valley Regional Park

2010-09-22T19:06:00.000-07:00

Contact:

Katie Westfall

Katie@wildcoast.net

Office: (619) 423-8665 x212

Cell: (858) 366-5713

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 22nd, 2010

Organizations Oppose Placement of Power Plant in the Otay Valley Regional Park

Imperial Beach, California. Twelve environmental organizations—local, statewide, and national—

signed-on to a letter released today to the California Energy Commission opposing the placement of

a 300-megawatt (MW) natural gas power plant inside the Otay Valley Regional Park, located in

south San Diego County four miles north of the U.S. – Mexico Border.

The organizations that signed-on to the letter include: WiLDCOAST, Friends of the OVRP, The

City Project, Conservation Biology Institute, Endangered Habitat League, Endangered Habitat

Conservancy, Center for Biological Diversity, San Diego River Park Foundation, Sierra Club San

Diego Chapter, Natural Resources Defense Council, San Diego Audubon Society, and Preserve

Wild Santee.

The power plant is proposed for an area located within the City of Chula Vista’s Preserve, which is

designated as a “100% Conservation Area” in the City of Chula Vista Multiple Species

Conservation Program (MSCP) Subarea Plan. This designation is for land to be preserved and

managed for its biological resources.

Apex Power Group LLC, the power plant developer, submitted an application to the California

Energy Commission on June 30, 2010, to develop a plant and a substation on approximately 14-

acres of undisturbed land, along the southeastern city boundary of the City of Chula Vista. The

project, called the Pio Pico Energy Center, is proposed to be located within the boundary area of the

Otay Valley Regional Park.

The proposed natural gas peaker plant would be located directly adjacent to the Otay Lakes County

Park, a 78-acre County-operated park also located in the OVRP that offers the community hiking

trails, picnic areas, and a playground among other amenities.

The Otay Valley Regional Park (OVRP) is a public open space park with a planning area of 9,000-

acres in the Otay River Valley. It is a greenbelt that cuts between the Cities of Chula Vista and

South San Diego and extends from the Otay Reservoirs to the southern wetlands of the San Diego

Bay. The park is shared by the County of San Diego and the Cities of San Diego and Chula Vista

and is one of the last areas of open space in south San Diego County.

The California Energy Commission (CEC) will ultimately decide if this project will be permitted.

The CEC licenses power plants 50 megawatts (MW) and larger and the facilities related to those

plants. They will hold public workshops and hearings as part of the process before making a final

􀀁

WiLDCOAST conserves coastal and marine ecosystems and wildlife.

925 SEACOAST DRIVE 􀀁 IMPERIAL BEACH, CA 91902 􀀁 619.423.8665 􀀁 WWW.WILDCOAST.NET

decision, in which the pubic is encouraged to participate.

“The OVRP is a shining jewel of the South Bay. Do we really want to tarnish this jewel by placing

a power plant here?” says Serge Dedina, Executive Director of WiLDCOAST. “This project does

not belong in the park.”

WiLDCOAST was founded in 2000 to conserve coastal and marine ecosystems and wildlife.

Every time I go

2010-09-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

These three sandpipers in J Street Marsh captured my attention. Low tide, high tide, it doesn't matter. There is always a great display of shore birds at any time of the day. At low tide, the water is still. I had to take a "double take" at this one.

BBC News - Freshwater turtles face 'bleak future'

2010-09-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

From the ocean to the rivers and ponds, turtles of all species are now in danger of extinction.
BBC News - Freshwater turtles face 'bleak future'

Tijuana River Action Month online registration is now open!

2010-09-10T19:41:00.000-07:00

Every volunteer makes a difference!

Tijuana River Action Month online registration is now open!

WiLDCOAST said no to proposed peaker plant in Otay Valley Regional Park

2010-08-28T09:42:00.000-07:00

WiLDCOAST and local environmentalist say "NO" to proposed peaker plant construction in the Otay Valley Regional Park.

Chula Vista to begin construction on natural-gas fired peaker plant.

NOW YOU SEE IT, THEN YOU WILL NOT: Proposed site for additional peaker plant sits directly below Otay Lakes Park. Construction on this site will completely block the view of the Otay Valley Regional Park.

BBC News - Anti-whaling NGOs warn of 'contaminated' whale meat

2010-08-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

BBC News - Anti-whaling NGOs warn of 'contaminated' whale meat

I love BBC News! Their coverage of worldwide environmental and wildlife issues is a lesson for American media.

Wildlife and Offshore Drilling: Sea Turtles

2010-08-27T07:16:00.000-07:00

WiLDCOAST continuously works to educate and preserve the natural habitat and nesting grounds of all species of sea turtles. This article from Defenders of Wildlife discusses the impact of the BP's oil spill on the the life of sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico and Florida's Atlantic coast. More to come on WiLDCOAST's efforts to save this ancient species that has survived on this planet for more than 150 million years.

Wildlife and Offshore Drilling: Sea Turtles

BBC News - BP oil spill: Undersea oil remains in Gulf of Mexico

2010-08-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

BBC News - BP oil spill: Undersea oil remains in Gulf of Mexico