ESCONDIDO — Tensions are rising in a Del Dios community over a project involving the removal of several trees and the spraying of herbicides around the Lake Hodges reservoir.
A city advocate has had to step in to smooth “testy and personal” interactions between some residents and the nonprofit group leading the project known as the Oak Woodland Fire Fuel Reduction Project.
The nonprofit Friends of Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve has been in charge of the project, which has been removing eucalyptus trees and other non-native species from around the reservoir, a source of drinking water for the city of San Diego, residents in the Olivenhain Municipal Water District and the Santa Fe Irrigation District.
Towards the end of September, residents and members of the nonprofit met at the southwest portion of the lake to mark a number of large remaining eucalyptus trees for removal.
But the meeting became contentious when residents began questioning project organizers on the amount of trees that had come down already, the trees that would come down and the herbicides being used near the water.
Mike Kelly, a board member and conservation chair of the Friends of Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve, said the opposition first started when the big trees started being taken down.
“This is the first of a whole series of projects like this — the first one that actually generated some opposition — and I think it’s because these trees were in the view shed of people in the community and they didn’t like the fact that so many big trees were coming down,” Kelly said.
New opposition arose recently over the use of herbicides, mainly glyphosate, a chemical found in weed killing products as Roundup, which is being sprayed to keep tree saplings from re-sprouting.
Michelle Heaton, a Del Dios resident since 1978, said she wasn’t in agreement with the nonprofit’s use of spraying glyphosate on the grounds, adding that they’ll have to spray it for several years to prevent saplings from sprouting.
“This is not our land, we understand that,” Heaton said. “However, it’s been open to the public forever. This is a potable source of drinking water. (They’re) using known carcinogenics next to and on the ground at the lake shore.”
But according to Lan Wiborg, deputy director of long range planning with the city of San Diego, the city complies with state law regarding the use of herbicides near drinking water reservoirs.
The city takes water samples on a quarterly basis, Wiborg said, with the most recent testing being done on June 6.
Samples are analyzed for glyphosate at the city’s water quality laboratory using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved methods, explained Wiborg.
The laboratory detection limit is 10 parts per billion. Glyphosate, according to Wiborg, has not been detected in any of the samples, including the most recent sampling dates of Jan. 5, April 6, and June 6, of this year.
“The most recent analysis revealed that no herbicides were detected,” said Wiborg. “The USEPA has set a maximum contaminant level for glyphosate in drinking water of 700 parts per billion. This level is judged to be protective of human health.”
Around Hodges, the project is using two methods of applying the herbicides — the first is distributing glyphosate through a backpack sprayer and the other, by painting another herbicide called garlon onto tree stumps, a method known as “cut stump.”
Lance Cottington has lived near the lake for about nine years.
He is part of the grass roots group of residents that are contending against the tree removal and spraying.
“We just feel like it’s too much, too quick, it’s ill-conceived and not properly thought out,” Cottington said of the project.
“This lake is a very bio diverse area…we feel that (the project) is endangering that diversity,” Cottington said. “You can’t come into a place that is a world-renowned bird area and take out 60 to 80 percent of the trees and think you’re not making a difference. I don’t see how you can do that.” He added: “We feel the trees definitely need attention. The whole place needs to be attended to. It needs to be attended to in a proper forestry manner.”
“The trees and other plants being removed around the reservoir are invasive and not native,” said Wiborg. “The presence of these non-native plant species affects the health of the reservoir. The project will remove invasive and non-native plants such as eucalyptus, palm trees, pepper trees, Arundo, and acacia within a 90-acre project area around the reservoir. A significant project benefit will be that the restored drainages around the reservoir will attenuate urban runoff flows and remove pollutants, thus, helping to protect water quality in the city’s reservoir.”
Cottington said that he and other residents feel the city of San Diego, which owns the reservoir, has neglected its duties in taking care of its water resources for years.
San Diego officials said the city maintains the property, in part, through the Department of Public Utilities’ invasive plant control program as well as through annual brush management on property adjacent to residences for fire fuel reduction.
According to Wiborg, partnering with non-governmental organizations makes good sense for Public Utilities and the water rate payers.
“When other entities are awarded funding to perform management activities on city property, this represents a savings to the water rate payer,” Wiborg said. “The Friends of Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve has a 25-year proven record for habitat restoration projects and their goals are in alliance with those of Public Utilities.”
The nonprofit has received grants from the Natural Resources Conservation Service for the project.
At this time, there’s no schedule set for any of the band of big eucalyptus trees to come down on the southwest portion of the lake until significant fire dangers have passed, Kelly said.
5 comments
I have lived at Lake Hodges for almost 30 years and hiked there for 5 years before that. During that time, the number and size of eucs, palms, pepper trees,etc., has increased dramatically. In riparian areas, I’d say there has been a 10 or more times increase. Drainages on the Del Dios side and the area close to the lake have also seen a huge increase in both numbers and size. The oaks, elderberry, sycamores belong there and provide wildlife habitat. They are being crowded out by other trees, which are sucking water out of the creeks, drainages and the lake. One of my favorite areas, the crossing at Felicita Creek, is now chocked with fan palms which threaten the Engleman oaks there. I used to see lots of frogs there, but no more. Wildlife will use the non-native trees, but it did fine for a very long time without them. My own experience is that the birds favor the native trees. I see the bigger threat to wildlife as habitat loss due to the huge amount of clearing, often to the dirt, that has gone on adjacent to Lake Hodges since the 2003 wildfire. I think that my neighbors who question this project are good people, and I do have concerns about glyphosate, but I strongly support this project. I was glad to see removal of the ernormous eucs that were shading and crowding out those beautiful Toyons (Christmas berry). lemonade berry and young oaks.
Follow the money. They have hundreds of thousands of grant dollars and it’s going to benefit the president of the Del dies Town Council and her cronies. THAT’S WHY the project was started and continues.
The misrepresentation by the City and particularly the Friends of Penasquitos on this subject is appalling.
The simple story is this – some residents of Del Dios wanted a better view of the lake so they went looking for a way to get rid of the trees – many of which had been there long before the houses. They found a federal government agency that was in the midst of a misdirected war against anything that they considered non-native – just because it was non-native. They also found that Friends of Penasquitos had a history of decimating Eucalyptus Forests (ref: their destruction of 50,000 Eucalyptus in Del Dios Canyon) for the same reason.
They call this decimation – Restoration – sounds good right? Wrong! Restoration of native plants denies the inevitability of ecological change and places an arbitrary date and location radius on what is and isn’t native. They just make it up as they go.
The next part of this tragic game is getting Fire Departments to unwittingly support the effort by making it sound like mature Eucs are a fire hazard. Are they serious? As a friend in Scripps Ranch said after the Cedar fire: I know the Eucs didn’t burn my house down. My house is gone and the Eucs are still there!
However, restoration projects do have lots of budget – from those same misdirected federal agencies. So now we have residents with vested personal interests, government and quasi government supported agencies backing them up – and free money from even more government agencies. What a combination! Got everything we need to go out and cut down all those trees so I can have a better view.
Fortunately there are real conservation groups forming all over the State of California now to fight this kind of irrational behavior. I only hope the destruction can be stopped in time. Remember, it takes 100 years to grow a 100 year old tree.
Will Lofft
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Please reconsider handling this in this manner! I stand behind the sensible position to stop the use of GLYPHOSATE toxins in our drinking water reservoir & watersheds and rational position of saving our shade & existing habitat. Doesn’t make any sense to me to state that this action would “remove pollutants, thus, helping to protect water quality in the city’s reservoir.” while you are at the same time adding more toxins?
These “Conservation” “Fire Fuel” projects being implemented @ Lake Hodges are as close to conservation as Strip Mining is to Award Winning Landscape design. The felling & poisoning of large trees (intent is to take over 80% of them) coupled with 5 years of systematic poisoning along the shores of a drinking water reservoir is insane. Glyphosate-a known carcinogen- is to be listed on prop 65. Bio-Blitz & Audubon studies determined this area to be one of the richest wildlife areas in the nation…It needs NO enhancement or alterations! Follow the money—the city IS asleep at the wheel. Stop this madness.
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