The Proctor Valley Vernal Pool and Uplands Habitat Restoration Project will complete restoration of 19 acres of vernal pools and coastal sage scrub in Proctor Valley on the City of San Diego's Otay Lakes Cornerstone Lands, a biological core area under the San Diego MSCP. The Project includes restoration of vernal pools and coastal sage scrub habitat and establishment of occurrences of two high-priority Management Strategic Plan (MSP) plants with seed collection, seed bulking, propagation, planting and seeding, and maintenance. The Project also includes restoration of habitat specific to the needs of several MSP animal species through seeding and planting of host and nest plants, construction of artificial burrows, and other measures.
Project partially funded by SANDAG TransNet EMP Land Management Grant #5001972 and #5004955.
Project type: Habitat restoration
Main implementing entity: The Chaparral Lands Conservancy
Point of contact: Dave Hogan
Project Page manager: Sarah McCutcheon
SDMMP lead: Sarah McCutcheon
Study lead: Dave Hogan
Project Funding
San Diego Association of Governments
vernal pools and alkali playa
Goal: Protect, enhance, and restore vernal pool habitat on Conserved Lands in the MSPA that supports or has the potential to support VF and SL species (i.e., California Orcutt grass, Otay mesa mint, San Diego button-celery, San Diego mesa mint, spreading navarretia, Riverside fairy shrimp, San Diego fairy shrimp, and western spadefoot) so that the vegetation community has high ecological integrity, and these species are resilient to environmental stochasticity and threats, such as altered hydrology, climate change and invasive plants, and will be likely to persist over the long term (>100 years).
Regional and/or Local
NFO
2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
MGT-IMP-VPML1 VERPOO-4
Management units: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Beginning in 2018, conduct annual routine stewardship management to maintain vernal pool habitat and existing MSP species populations as defined in the VPMMP (City of San Diego 2015). Level 1 pools are those where little maintenance is needed, other than routine access patrols and enforcement, removal of trash and debris, edge effects maintenance (e.g., offsite erosion control and irrigation management), maintaining fencing and signage, reparing trespass damage, repairing minor topographic disturbances, and controlling invasive plants for MSP species and general habitat maintenance (2 visits per spring).
Criteria |
Deadline year |
Level 1 Management implemented annually and report submitted |
2021 |
vernal pools and alkali playa
Goal: Protect, enhance, and restore vernal pool habitat on Conserved Lands in the MSPA that supports or has the potential to support VF and SL species (i.e., California Orcutt grass, Otay mesa mint, San Diego button-celery, San Diego mesa mint, spreading navarretia, Riverside fairy shrimp, San Diego fairy shrimp, and western spadefoot) so that the vegetation community has high ecological integrity, and these species are resilient to environmental stochasticity and threats, such as altered hydrology, climate change and invasive plants, and will be likely to persist over the long term (>100 years).
Regional and/or Local
NFO
2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
MGT-IMP-VPML2 VERPOO-5
Management units: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Beginning in 2018, conduct Level 2 management to enhance and stabilize vernal pool habitat and MSP species that monitoring has shown to be in decline based on VPMMP (City of San Diego 2015) management triggers. Level 2 management includes implementing all Level 1 actions in addition to other more intensive management. This more intensive management includes mechanized and hand repair to baseline conditions those moderate topographic disturbances that affect pool integrity, ponding potential and overall size as defined in the VPMMP (City of San Diego 2015). Vernal pools with MSP species should be dethatched as needed to clear thatch from vernal pool basins and in = 20-foot surrounding site-specific management buffers followed up with invasive plant control 2 times in the spring. General invasive plant control should be conducted in other vernal pool basins and/or associated upland watersheds, with the number of visits increased to 3 per year. For Level 2 management, seed banking, bulking and redistribution may be needed to enhance declining populations of MSP plant species. For declining MSP fairy shrimp populations, additional monitoring is required to determine what is causing the decline followed by management to mitigate the threat. Shrimp cysts may need to be collected from other pools in the complex and redistributed into the impacted pool, although with no collection from pools containing Lindahl's fairy shrimp. Off-site cyst collection may be implemented if there is no on-site cyst bank or it is too depauperate.
Criteria |
Deadline year |
Level 2 Management implemented as needed and report submitted |
2021 |