Scribe Communications Partners With Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek to Illuminate Cactus Wren Restoration Project

•  Community relations strategy designed to provide local students with opportunity to engage with conservation science project online and off.

Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek has hired local public relations company Scribe Communications to promote its education- and community-based Cactus Wren Restoration Project.

In partnership with Millennial Tech Middle School, the project aims to rehabilitate nearly 75 acres of cactus-wren friendly canyonland in Southeast San Diego, all while advancing conservation education. In addition, the project seeks to educate surrounding community members about ways in which they can directly and positively impact the environment.

“Because of the biodiversity-rich habitats in Southeast San Diego, and because of Millennial Tech Middle School’s ability to continually shape their pilot elective in conservation science, this project has a lot of potential,” said Leslie Reynolds, Groundwork San Diego- Chollas Creek board member. “We really want to maximize our exposure, and because Scribe has had success promoting community-based projects in Southeast San Diego, we know they are the right fit.”

In an effort to narrate the story of the Cactus Wren Restoration Project, Scribe Communications has integrated a social media plan, utilizing social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. In collaboration with Bryce Inman of Prescient Technologies, Scribe is also working to reinvigorate the Groundwork San Diego website, including the addition of a “Tweet this” feature and a student forum.

Because administrators recently developed the conservation science elective at MTM, they have been able to incorporate an online journaling feature, implemented by Scribe Communications and Prescient Technologies. Beyond contributing to the restoration process by propagating cactus and planting seed onsite, the MTM students are self-documenting their work.

In turn, Scribe Communications and Prescient Technologies have developed online forums for the students to document and share their self-generated media.

The promotion initiative, managed by Scribe Communications, has been employed to advance conservation education and connect the S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) magnet students to their work in the field, and through the use of technology.

Founded in 1986, Scribe Communications is a boutique media relations firm headquartered in the Golden Triangle.  With deep roots in San Diego, the Scribe team is comprised of former journalists and award winning writers.

For more information, visit www.ScribeCommunications.com

Two-Year TransNet Grant to Keep Coastal Cactus Wren Chirping

•  Urban canyon open space, undisturbed by fires, will be re-stocked with cactus for nesting, as botanists and middle school students study native bird

An extreme home makeover is now under way in Southeast San Diego, thanks to the efforts of a Chollas Creek area non-profit organization, about 200 local middle school students, an international environmental consulting company and many, many others.

Backed by a $240,000 TransNet grant, the Cactus Wren Restoration Project has been launched to rehabilitate nearly 75 acres of canyonland near Market Street in Encanto. The two-year project will include cleanup, weed abatement, propagation of 21,000 cacti, reseeding several other native plants and wildlife monitoring.

“The grant for the Cactus Wren Restoration Project is part of a bigger environmental mitigation program funded by the TransNet half-cent sales tax in the county,” said Gary Gallegos, executive director of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG). “To mitigate transportation improvements throughout the county, TransNet funds help preserve large parcels of land that are connected and therefore preserve a habitat system.”

In the grant received by Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek, the goal of the program is to learn more about the coastal cactus wren and improve the quality of the habitat for this small brown and white bird that stays with one mate for life and loves to nest in the prickly cholla cactus.

“There’s a lot we don’t know about the cactus wren,” explained Bruce Hanson, a restoration ecologist at EDAW Inc. and a board member with the non-profit Groundwork San Diego.“We think they like to stay within a restricted area, maybe a five-mile radius, and we know they like to take advantage of very prickly cactus to make their nests and protect their eggs and offspring from predators like rats, possum and snakes.”

While not listed as endangered, the coastal cactus wren’s habitat throughout Southern California has been seriously destroyed by wildfire in the past half-dozen years. For example, approximately 600 acres of prime coastal cactus wren habitat was destroyed on Wild Animal Park property during the 2007 Witch Creek Fire. Southeast San Diego’s Encanto and Radio canyons are among the few coastal cactus wren-friendly places remaining.

“Encanto and Radio canyons are part of California’s Southcoast Ecoregion, one of the most important biodiversity ‘hotspots’ in the world,”  said Leslie Reynolds, a member of the Board of Directors for Groundwork San Diego, the lead organization for the Cactus Wren Restoration Project. “By stewarding these canyons, residents are not only improving the quality of life in their neighborhoods, but they are also part of a worldwide movement to save the earth’s resources.”

Groundwork San Diego, with offices across the street from Encanto Canyon, is an independent, not-for-profit, environmental business that works within the Chollas Creek area to improve the environment, economy and quality of life through local action.

“Under the auspices of Groundwork USA, we seek to get people, business, government and other organizations involved in practical projects like the Cactus Wren Restoration Project that improve our community and our environment,” said Reynolds.

Also important to the project is Millennial Tech Middle School. Approximately 200 sixth- and seventh-graders from the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics-focused school are learning about conservation science technology through this hands-on program. About four acres on campus are being used as an outdoor science laboratory for the students, and native plant seedlings have been brought in for student observation.

"Participation in the Cactus Wren Restoration Project helps teach the students about their surrounding area," said Heather Potter, vice principal at Millennial Tech Middle School. "Ours is the only school to have this conservation science curriculum, which incorporates lectures and laboratory and field work to learn about the environment, natural resources and some of the choices involved with conservation issues. Student participation in the Cactus Wren Restoration Project promotes their thinking on a bigger, more global level."

Another leader in the project is EDAW, which is now known at AECOM. The family of design, engineering, planning, program, and construction management companies has offices in downtown San Diego, as well as throughout the United States and in Asia, Australia and Europe.

By contributing to weed abatement and clearing non-native plants, the City of San Diego Parks and Recreation Open Space Division is a key partner in the Cactus Wren Restoration Project as well. Located within the City’s Multi-Habitat Planning Area, Radio and Encanto canyons contribute to the Natural Communities Conservation Program, a regional preserve system. While some parts of the property are rich with a diversity of native plants, food sources and nesting sites for the cactus wren, other areas have been razed of vegetation or suffer an abundance of non-native weeds and invasive plants and trees that degrade the habitat.

The coastal cactus wren shares its Southeast San Diego canyon home with the California gnatcatcher, which is among the species listed as Threatened by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Both species are listed as “target species” in the state of California’s Natural Community Conservation Planning Program. The maritime succulent scrub habitat, featuring coastal sage scrub, cholla cactus, jojoba, sage, buckwheat, Mexican elderberry trees, the spine bush, the spiny red berry plant, and many other plants, also is home to coyotes, gophers, possum, butterflies, snakes and lizards.

For more information about the Cactus Wren Restoration Project, visit www.groundworksandiego.org.

Groundwork San Diego Chollas Creek and Millennial Technology Middle School invite you to...

Conservation Science Saturday

Date: March 20, 2010
Time: 9am-11am
Location: Encanto Canyon (meet in the east end of the Malcolm X Library parking lot)

With the help of Groundwork San Diego members, students from Millennial Tech will be planting native plant seed, which will eventually provide a home for the cactus wren, a native bird. Cactus wren habitat restoration is taking place right in our backyards, in Encanto and Radio Canyons. These canyons are some of the richest bio-diversity hotspots in the county.

Please support your son, daughter or community member in their effort to restore native habitat and to protect disappearing species. Information stations will be available for community members.

San Diego Zoo's Institute for Conservation Research Unveils New Learning Tool for Conservation Research of Native Bird

• Millennial Tech Middle School Students First To Use Cactus Wren Modules at The Beckman Center for Conservation Research

Ever since the 2007 Witch Creek fire ravaged 600 acres of coastal sage scrub at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park, scientists and researchers there have been analyzing the effects on plants and animals and restoring the native habitat. On Oct. 13 they got some help from middle-school students from Southeast San Diego.

Using modules unveiled for the first time, 76 seventh-graders from Millennial Tech Middle School spent time examining and prioritizing habitats for the coastal cactus wren, a species they are learning about in their conservation science class. The students were the first to use the new cactus wren modules at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Conservation Research at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park.

The Beckman Center, housed within the Institute for Conservation Research, is staffed with educators and scientists, including a cactus wren specialist, who led the students throughout the day.

At the Conservation Education Laboratory of the Beckman Center, there are several laptops, which made it possible for multiple students to work on the cactus wren modules at the same time. The modules, set up with Google Earth technology, enabled the students to observe various regions throughout the county. Like land planners, the students went through a list of criteria and discovered which San Diego regions best meet the needs of the cactus wren. Researchers at the Institute for Conservation Research use the same technology to determine whether or not to invest in the restoration of various habitats. They, too, have goals of ensuring that the cactus wren, as well as other plant and animal species specific to the San Diego region, have a home.

During their time at the Conservation Education Laboratory, Millennial Tech Middle School students also had a question and answer session with the Institute for Conservation Research staff members, including a cactus wren specialist. According to staff, San Diego County is home to a greater number of endemic species than any other county in the contiguous United States. The cactus wren are specialized, live in cacti like the prickly pear cactus, and generally have one mate during their lifetime.

In conjunction with their time at the Conservation Education Laboratory, the students had the opportunity to tour other laboratories at the center, including a laboratory where prickly pear cactus, home to the cactus wren, is being grown. Beckman Center scientists are actively working to find the best method for growing prickly pear cactus, which can then be planted in rich regions throughout San Diego County.

Millennial Tech Middle School students are growing cacti themselves, and will plant it in two rich-soil regions, Encanto Canyon and Radio Canyon, which cover 75 acres near their Southeast San Diego school. Supported by a TransNet grant and Groundwork San Diego Chollas Creek, as well as Millennial Tech faculty, and scientists from EDAW Inc., which is now known as AECOM, students will continue to learn about conservation science, and native habitats throughout Southern California will be restored for the cactus wren.