Vision for the Valley

The Tijuana river valley is a floodplain, an area protected under the City’s Multiple Species Conservation Program, and a regional park. Steps are under way to create a contiguous river parkway from San Ysidro to the ocean. To date, San Diego County’s Parks Department has purchased over 1,000 acres of land in the eastern half of the valley while state and federal agencies hold about 2,500 acres at the west end. Funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coastal Conservancy are available to the County to purchase land from flood-prone areas on a willing-seller basis. The vision for nonstructural flood control, resource protection, and recreation improvements includes restoring a variety of habitats, removing structures from the designated floodway, and providing improved trails throughout the valley to the ocean.

Goat Canyon Enhancement Project

Flash floods are burying the Tijuana Estuary’s southern saltmarsh in mud. The Goat Canyon Enhancement Plan prepared by the Southwest Wetlands Interpretive Association (SWIA) in 1999 proposes constructing big sediment management basins in Goat Canyon to protect the estuary. An environmental impact assessment was prepared by SWIA and was released in October. Plans call for constructing the project in 2002–2003 during a window of opportunity that avoids the breeding season for two resident endangered birds, the least Bell’s vireo and the California gnatcatcher.

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