Mission Valley Preserve

The San Diego River Park Foundation has made the Mission Valley Preserve a focus project. As the City of San Diego's only public park in Mission Valley, the Preserve plays a special role in efforts to create the River - long San Diego River Park.

Over the past few years, SDRPF has worked with a number project partners including the City of San Diego Park and Recreation Department, City of San Diego Police Department, Councilmember Donna Frye, Friends of Mission Valley Preserve, Urban Corps of San Diego, Mission Valley Community Council, and others to improve the conditions in this 51-acre wildlife preserve in the western portion of Mission Valley.

Grant funding has been received from the Wetlands Recovery Project small grants program, NOAA's Community Enhancement Program (a partnership with The Nature Conservancy), and Proposition 12 (received by the Urban Corps of San Diego.)

The Preserve is entirely within the floodplain of the San Diego River. Most of it is riparian in nature, with beautiful trees, including black willows, cottonwoods and sycamores. The western edge is estuarine, feeling the constant fluctuation of the ocean, with salt grass, pickleweed, and spiny rush.

In the past, the Preserve has been home to the endangered least Bell's vireo, a tiny songbird that nest in the area after wintering in Baja California. Not too many years ago, hundreds of thousands of these birds existed throughout much of California. Today,due primarily to the growth of our coastal urban areas, the population has dropped to around a thousand birds. The birds usually arrive sometime in the spring, as early as mid-march, where they stay until as late as September.

The community is working to restore and enhance this area with hopes that the least Bell's vireo will flourish in the area, while making an inviting living science center in the heart of our urban environment. The project includes removing non-native plants, reducing the more than 100 tons of trash that has accumulated in the Preserve, planting native plants, and increasing educational signage.