Environment

Legislation Would Designate Wilderness In San Diego County

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published December 17, 2009 at 10:06 AM PST

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

Vista Republican Congressman Darrell Issa introduced a bill this week to set aside more than 20,000 acres in North San Diego County as protected wilderness.

The bill would designate more than 13,000 acres in the Beauty Mountain area north of Warner Springs and nearly 8,000 acres near Palomar Mountain as wilderness.

Some of the land is already part of the Cleveland National Forest.

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But Rick Halsey with the Chaparral Institute says if the legislation passes, the land would be protected from development.

"The real issue is not so much what we're going to lose, but what we've lost already," said Halsey. "There's just so much habitat that's been eliminated that we just really have to protect what's left. I mean there just isn't any more room for compromise in terms of that."

Halsey says the chaparral shrub that dominates much of the proposed wilderness provides needed habitat for other plants and wildlife.

Wilderness designations are more restrictive than national forest or park designations because they ban man-made structures and are intended to preserve the natural landscape.

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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