In large part, thanks to its many urban canyons, 81% of the 1.4 million residents in the city of San Diego live within a 10-minute walk of a park or green space. These special spaces provide important benefits for people, plants, and animals.
Canyons absorb and filter stormwater run-off, help buffer high temperatures common in developed areas, serve as important wildlife corridors, and provide much needed recreational space. Unfortunately, canyons are threatened by continued development, pollution, climate change, invasive species, and more.
To help conserve these special places and ensure their unique benefits remain accessible to our communities, we are conducting a biological survey of San Diego urban canyons.
The surveys will help us determine the current state of conservation of plants and animals within the canyons we study and empower community members to become stewards of urban nature.
The way we study our canyons is multidisciplinary, meaning we combine different study disciplines or specialties. We look at plants, arthropods, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, and work directly with education and outreach specialists.
Our work is also collaborative—we engage multiple stakeholders including land managers, landowners, government agencies, non-governmental agencies and local community members.
This work isn’t just for our scientists, we want you to help us too! Join the research by participating and contributing to this project through the power of community science.
Questions about the Healthy Canyons Initiative? Contact our Conservation Biology department by using our contact form under "Research".
