Protecting Torrey Pines Popular But Fragile Ecosystem

over their warm and beautiful Presidents' Day weekend, San Diego and stick to the beaches and parks. One of the most popular spot is Torrey Pines Docent Society. It averages nine visitors 9000 visitors a day. We love Torrey Pines but are we loving it to death. The reserve small staff fragile ecosystem and backlog can impose a real challenge to maintaining this precious and natural environment. Joining means Darren Smith, natural resource manager, California state parks San Diego coast district. Also is Ingo Renner, Pres. of the Torrey Pines society. I would like you both, Darren to describe what you think typifies the best of Torrey Pines Docent Society. I am a plant not and it is incredibly rich and rare vegetation communities. So is a great place to see that diversity of southern coastal California. The ocean and the pews and the landscapes and the land farms are probably more charismatic. But that is my favorite thing about Torrey Pines Docent Society . The views, of the ocean, wide open views of the Pacific Ocean. All of the people, visitors around the world are very interesting to talk to. They appreciate everything that you tell them about what we have their, and what they see. On any given day you can see rattlesnakes, Falcons, and like Darren said the wildflowers are starting to pop everywhere and it is a nice time. Darren why is it called a reserve and not a state park? State parks are organized under different classifications, the most sensitive biologically are designated as state reserve. The focus of work at a particular, recreation should be appreciating the natural resources there it CMAC so that is the focus of this particular park. Old town San Diego is a historic Park but the focus is on the historic nature and character of the park. Now Ingo, you interact with people coming to Torrey Pines every day that you are on the job. What types of questions do they have? They ask what makes it so special? And I would have to say one of the things we say is it his home to that indigenous Torrey Pines tree, and secondly and more relevant I would say is that it is part of the remaining 5%, maritime chaparral in Southern California. Only 5%? The rest has been destroyed. So we are a living you Sam, when people come and walk through our trails they get to experience what is like 1000 years ago. And they get to feel it, see it, and it is a full experience. Are there really thousands of people who come every day what's yes, and it was packed. How do such large numbers of visitors affect Torrey Pines and the environment what --? Different ways. We have a lot of pews on the trail, it does not seem like a whole lot of damage one single person can do on a trail couple when you have 9 to 10,000 people walking on the same trail and it does exacerbate you motion problems. Probably the biggest problem is most people generally do a good job visiting reserve and obey the rules. And are careful, but because of large fine with people we get a small minority of people jump off trail or want to go explore similar they should not be. And that is what causes the majority of the damage. Z what do you see people doing that you shouldn't they shouldn't? They jump over rails and to do Celebes. That is the new ink. You see a lot of high school students, young college students, and they know the laws. We have signs. We tell them, but for them it is still worth it for them to jump over the wire and do that self the on the edge of the cliff. That is really the main thing. They do not understand, a lot of the plans that we have take decades to establish themselves. They are small and in a fragile sandstone ecosystem and they don't realize the damage that they are doing. What about litter and just the fact that people are there, and maybe they are eating something, or they have a lot of children with them. Do you see that as well? Not so much, as eating is not allowed up in the reserve. As of last year we got of breed of the trash cans. We seem counterintuitive, but surprisingly people learn to pack out there is a learning curve. People have been doing a pretty good job. And then we have backs that we clean up litter. All in all that is not a big problem. I think he had explained us Darren, why is walking off a trail such a big deal? One of the reason is that we have a number of very rare vegetation types and some are very resilient to trampling. Plant species that grow out to places that look like a would be good to walk around. One misplaced footstep and you are taking in endangered species. And that misplaced footstep is sometimes looking for shortcut, correct X spec right. Or in alternative view. There are stunning amazing views for people to go there a lot maybe they are looking for another experience. You said Darren that the main thing about Torrey Pines for you as you are a plant guy is that kind of species, the unique species of plants at Torrey Pines. Tell us about that, what type of unique species? We have shortly deadlier, succulent plant and it mimics the iron concretions are nodules we have in the Linda Vista soils and it mimics geologic feature. And unless you see at the right time of year you would never notice it or see it. If you get down on your hands and knees, it's a beautiful I plant. And is it unique to Torrey Pines? Yes it is. It close at Torrey Pines and across of city reserve in Delmar Mesa there it CMAC I know when we spoke last time we spoke about Torrey Pine, and how the trout might be affecting it and how some of those trees had to be taken out. Is that right? Yes we have lost a lot of trees over the last year or so. Things have slowed down with the rain and we are hoping for more. With the rains this year has it affected the stability of the trails at all? Pretty much every winter when we have heavy rain, a lot of our trails that were originally designed to run straight down the slope, when they are designed that way just about any level of rainfall causes in erosion problem. It's year we have had a little worse than normal erosion then we normally have. But if we have heavier rains in shorter periods it will definitely look worse. Ingo, you have talked about sandstone earlier. Why is that important, that so much of the Torrey Pines has that type of granting of sandstone? Is it fragile? Yes, it is susceptible to erosion. All of Torrey Pines is on sandstone. When we get a ring like Darren was saying, we gone the first week of January. We had rain for two days and a couple of inches of rain. Some of the beach trail got some big grooves going down it. One area was actually 1 foot deep aired so yes, sandstone is susceptible to erosion because of water mainly. And with people's footsteps, it should probably be of problem. If you have trampling of housings of people. What have you been able to keep people out of the areas that are too fragile and on those trails? Locally we have a large society that plays a large role. We have a good and short effective Ranger staff, but our dosage is out on the trails every day keeping the people doing what they should be doing. Avenue just recently put up some wire barriers? Yes. One year ago we put up a trail delineators with wire. And we started on the Perry Croke trail and we had six weeks to get it done before that that catcher breeding season starts in March 1 aired and since then the group the Seabees, every week they, on Tuesday, sometimes they work up to five hour days. It is a great group of people. This past year they strung up 7 miles of cable. CMAC is it working? It is working and is a step in the right direction. And I think they have put in at least 3000 posts. A lot of the posts, they are hard capstone, so we have to get special equipment, special drills, generators. It is quite an undertaking. With all the visitors, what is the trap them parking light at Torrey Pines state reserve? It varies. On very busy days it is backed and we close the lots early in the morning. Unless busy days we get walk-in traffic from the community. These variable. The South Beach is usually full. The North Beach lot does not fill up quite as frequently except on Sunday weekends. There was a lot of publicity that state parks have this huge backlog of maintenance. 1.5 billion they were talking about. And now there is a five-year plan to try to make up some of those maintenance projects across the state. Is Torrey Pines going to get any of that work or money to maintain the park? Yes, absolutely. One of the projects we are looking forward to is redoing Sue and mortar structure. It has been neglected for a very long time. And we have been been dating get hurt we hope to get that within the next couple of years. One area of the park that you guys think that is most that risk would you think it would be? I would say that Outlook, raise a point, definitely. Most of the people, they do their research online and ask us where is that razor point and doc appoint. That is where they go down and have a tendency to go up trail into self these. It is a beautiful view, but it is damaging the outlooks down there. No more self is. And we cannot look Torrey Pines to death. I have been speaking with Darren's California State Park. And Ingo Renner president of the society. Think you both very much -- thank you both very much.