Preserves, reserves make room for nature

By: TIM MAYER - Staff Writer | Saturday, August 23, 2003 11:27 PM PDT ∞

CARLSBAD ---- Last week, high on a hill near Lake Calavera, state Fish and Game Department biologist Kimberly McKee Lewis brought the white pickup to a stop on a rutted dirt road, hoping to catch the sound of a California gnatcatcher.

No luck.

But Lewis, manager of the 300-acre, state-owned Carlsbad Highlands Ecological Reserve, said she had seen and heard gnatcatchers earlier, even young birds not too long out of the nest.

That's important because the brushy reserve of coastal sage scrub and the adjacent 110-acre Calavera Nature Preserve owned by the La Mesa-based Environmental Trust are among the last sanctuaries for the endangered bird and dozens of other rare birds, animals and plants.

The small, insect-eating, blue-gray black-tailed bird with its distinctive white eye ring and almost impossible-to-describe call once thrived throughout Southern California when the sage scrub dominated the hillsides. But experts estimate as much as 90 percent of the bird's habitat has been lost to development over the decades, and the birds with it.

"This is all they have left. Every spec of property we have has to be available to them," Lewis said, and described the adjacent reserve and preserve as "fragile."

They're even more fragile when off-road motorcycles and trucks slash trails through the brush, she said, explaining that an off-road vehicle can wipe out an entire patch of rare plants such as the threadleaf Brodiaea in seconds.

Walkers, dogs and bicyclists can also cause problems, sometimes disturbing nesting birds. The situation will only get worse as the population grows, she said.

Homes already crowd the reserve borders at Oceanside. Earth movers to the east and south in Carlsbad are scraping the vegetation from hills for more homes and new extensions of College Boulevard and Cannon Road.

Part of the reserve closed

Lewis said the state wildlife agency is closing off the southern two-thirds of the reserve to the public, except for group nature and educational hikes organized through the department.

Signs and information kiosks, with maps showing people where they can and can't tread, have been posted at access points, and illegal trails created by bicycles and off-road vehicles will be removed and replanted with native vegetation.

The state wildlife agency has decided to leave a bicycle trail and hiking trail in the northern third of the reserve in place with year-round public access. They've been posted with trail signs and link up with a path on the southern border of the Calavera Nature Preserve and to the city's trail system planned for Lake Calavera.

"We don't normally allow biking, but we are doing it as a pilot program," she said in describing the two Highland trails as a compromise to allow residents to enjoy nature, the views to be had from the tall hills, and the beauty of the area.

"I've been struggling for years to identify an appropriate public use ... with the expectation and hope that folks will adhere to these signs, respect the rules, and appreciate what we are trying to do," Lewis said. "It's for them and their children."

The closure has already angered people who are used to thinking of the area as some sort of big nature park, Lewis said.

"It's going to give people fits," she said. "I've had someone just cuss me out right in front of their children." One boy threatened to get his lawyer father to sue her when she tried to explain the rules.

Lewis said she hopes an ongoing campaign to help educate the public about the ecological reserve and the neighboring Calavera preserve ---- carried out by volunteers and nature groups ---- and her own personal contacts with visitors will help soften the impact.

Past efforts successful

Efforts so far to block access, remove existing illegal trails, keep off-road motorized vehicles out of the wildlife areas, and educate the public have had some success in protecting both the Calavera preserve and the Highlands reserve, said Lewis and Donnie Hunsaker, the public outreach coordinator of the Environmental Trust.

Hunsaker estimated that illegal off-road traffic has been reduced by about 80 percent in the past three years, "which can be noted by a lot of new plant growth in what used to be well-used roads."

City and wildlife officials attributed some of the success in keeping people out of protected areas to barricades, gates installed both by the Nature Preserve and Fish and Game, and to enforcement efforts by Carlsbad and Oceanside off-road patrols.

"The Carlsbad Police Department has been very helpful in trying to patrol our property and their (city) property," Lewis said.

Carlsbad police Lt. Mike Shipley said six officers work in the off-road detail and the department this year and that the department is doubling the number of off-road motorcycles it owns to six.

In many cases offenders simply don't know they are violating the law, and those are more likely to get a warning and an education than a ticket, he said.

"We get a lot of real young motorcycle riders. Their dads buy them a motorcycle for Christmas, and they go out there because their friends say they can ride there," Shipley said.

Shipley said he has seen people's attitudes change over the years and that people are becoming more educated and more concerned about preserving nature.

"People are becoming more sensitive to it," he said. "I've been here almost 30 years, and the biggest complaint we used to get (about off-road vehicles) was the noise and dust. Those still come in, but I think there are more people who have a concern to keep it as natural as possible."

Contact staff writer Tim Mayer at (760) 901-4043 or tmayer@nctimes.com.

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