The County Operations Center became a village of tents, giving away free stuff and displaying many items, all trying to express what Earth Day means.
“It’s a really special day to me because it’s all about the community coming together and really figuring out what we can do based on our shared priorities for climate action,” said Eden Brukman, San Diego County’s chief sustainability officer.
Climate action groups were there. So were colorful creatures like owls, amphibians and tarantulas, all native to San Diego at the booth run by the Multiple Species Conservation Program (MSCP).
Habitat preservation is the goal of the MSCP. They have a list of species under their protection that need land to live on and to move across the region.
“We have plants, we have the cactus wren, we have gnatcatchers which are both birds,” said Bethany Principe, program coordinator for the MSCP.
“We have horned lizards, which are reptiles, and the arroyo toad, which are amphibians. We have fairy shrimp, which are invertebrates, and we also have mountain lion and mule deer.”
Preserving land and habitat means acquiring land, which requires money from San Diego County and partnerships. A preservation plan has been adopted for South County.
“In our MSCP preserve system which includes federal and state partner lands, county land and private mitigation; that’s going to be about 98,000 acres. And right now we’re at 80,000 acres which is about 82% of our preservation goal,” Principe said.
North and East County are yet to come.
A few steps away from land preservation, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) was promoting Bike Anywhere Day to get people out of their carbon emitting cars.
Erika Saari is a consultant to SANDAG’s transportation demand management program. Bike anywhere day is May 16, when people are supposed to bike wherever they want.
“It could be, you know, to your local coffee shop, or to the park or to the school,” Saari said.
The annual event has been around for decades. It used to be called bike to work day.
“And during the pandemic as we know, many things changed. The dynamics of going to work. Some people are working hybrid schedules. Some people are working completely from home,” she said.
So don’t bike to work. Just bike anywhere.
