How the County is Spending Your Money: Part One

If you drive down to the eastern end of San Miguel Road, you'll see your tax dollars at work.

The area I'm referring to is just on the other side of the white fencing, on the left-hand side. This has always been a fairly barren piece of land with weed abatement done occasionally by the County.

This unassuming piece of real estate has a long history of failed County projects.

The Western Burrowing Owl Project

In 2010, a program was established involving Western Burrowing Owls (BUOW) and California Ground Squirrels. The County brought in 1,000 or so ground squirrels and introduced them into this area.

"Our long-term goal is to assist in the establishment of a more natural grassland ecosystem in San Diego County by re-establishing ground squirrels and, ultimately BUOW.....Because the California ground squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi) is a keystone species that helps engineer California grassland ecosystems and provides critical resources for BUOW, re-establishment of this species is a crucial component of any sustainable recovery plan for BUOW and the larger ecosystem."

More information can be found in their third year progress report called "An Adaptive Management Approach to Recovering Burrowing Owl Populations and Restoring a Grassland Ecosystem in San Diego County, Project Report 2013."

Western Burrowing Owl

The project failed and when staff came back to collect their ground squirrels four or five years later, the ground squirrels were gone. The word in the community is that they retrieved less than ten.

What happened to all the ground squirrels?

They infested all the properties along San Miguel Road and further south and have been a bane to the community to this day.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife reveals "these California squirrels are ruthless predators, beating and devouring tiny prey in a display of nature's hidden savagery." They kill the baby bunnies, kill the new chicks, ruin the produce and dig holes everywhere that a horse could fall in and injure themselves.

This 2010 project was a disaster and is still causing a great deal of suffering to the residents the County is supposed to serve.

Vernal Pools and Fairy Shrimp

Another detrimental program to the community involved a much-used horse trail letting riders access the path up Mother Miguel Mountain. The County decided that the property contained vernal pools that were inhabited by fairy shrimp. These little critters can be up to an inch and a half long. We looked and looked but never found any. The last seen fairy shrimp were the ones advertised as "sea monkeys" and sold through comic book advertisements in the 1970s.

In May of 2024, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 5-year review reported the only known occurrences of the vernal pool tadpole shrimp are located 100 miles away in Alameda County.

The "vernal pools" were ruts made by the County vehicle tires and the fairy shrimp were never really there. The County closed down the equestrian trail and removed the bridge anyway. That's the story you'll hear from any horse rider who ever enjoyed the now non-existent trail.

So What's The County Up To These Days?

There's some type of planting project going on. The irrigation pipe is stretched out over several acres. What could they possibly be putting in at the end of the road?

[Click on images to enlarge]

These photos were taken at mid-point. The irrigation runs far and deep in both directions.

It appears that there are eight irrigation control boxes. Whatever could they be planting?

And who are they planting it for? The only persons with a view of the area are five houses at the end of San Miguel Road. I hope that they don't plant trees and block these residents' view of the reservoir.

Stay tuned . . . a little birdie told me that ten County staff were out there today planting in the rain!

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