Emily Holmes remembers meeting Back Country Land Trust Program Director Jon Green on a middle school trip to Wright’s Field. Fast forward about six years and Emily, now 20, created new educational signage for the 230-acre undeveloped area in Alpine.
“I am doing this as part of my Ranger award for Venture Scouts. It will end up being two signs, one for endangered San Diego thornmint and one for the vernal pools,” Holmes said.
The Crew 1833 Scout said the first sign explains why part of the open space is sectioned off from hikers: that portion of the area is home to San Diego thornmint plants, vegetation that played a starring role in keeping the space undeveloped in the mid-1990’s.
Holmes said ecologist Scott McMillan “shared tons of photos of the thornmint” for her to use on the first sign.
The artwork for the second sign is based on a drawing by Green’s 10-year old daughter, Sayana. Holmes used the open-source graphics program Inkscape to clean up the young girl’s rendering of local vernal pools inhabited by Western Spadefoot toads.
“The vernal pools area is a really sensitive habitat for the Western Spadefoot toad and it’s hard to block it off from people and dogs passing through. When the pools evaporate, like now in summer, the toads go down into the mud and stay there until it is wet, mating season,” Holmes said.
The ambitious Scout said the posts and concrete were installed on July 18 while the signs were going through final design changes and sent out for printing. She said they will be made of aluminum and printed with a vinyl coating, and measure 24 by 36 inches.
“Now all of our trail users will be able to learn for themselves why we are protecting these threatened and endangered species here in Alpine.
These new signs will highlight the unique plants and animals found at Wright’s Field, and showcase the important work that BCLT is doing in the community to preserve and restore open-space land for future generations,” Green said.
Both Green and Holmes said the project was funded in part by donations.
“Project funding was provided by a SANDAG grant for the protection and interpretation of sensitive resources at Wright’s Field. Alpine Education Foundation sponsored the printing costs of the signs. Alpine ACE Hardware donated the concrete for the posts, and Al’s Sport Shop in El Cajon donated small plaques to remind people to leave no trace and to keep their dogs on leash. Truly a community effort,” Green said.
He also said BCLT is planning a ribbon cutting for sometime in early September. Holms is already thinking of other improvements that could be done like adding trail markers. She laughed and said that was her original plan before she started on the sign project.
“I was originally super gung-ho about wanting to put trail markers out there with the little symbols you see in National parks like dogs on leash but Jon said it might be too much. He was right.”
