Explanation for Scripps Coastal Reserve closure is fiction
Until Scripps Coastal Reserve was closed when COVID hit, I walked there nearly every day for over three decades. The land was indeed in a constant process of natural recovery, and the regrowth of native vegetation was easily observable on this once-denuded blufftop.
I have never witnessed anyone disturbing wildlife there, and the frequency that I saw California gnatcatchers increased year by year. The only “trash” I have ever seen at the reserve have been small military artifacts left there from its use during World War II. I have never once seen any dogs at the reserve and have not seen a bicycle there in over a decade.
The obvious fiction of the reserve’s explanation for the closure leaves me to question why it was really closed (“Public misuse is cited as reason for Scripps Coastal Reserve closure,” Jan. 11, La Jolla Light). It is highly suspicious that the reserve closure also shut off the only remaining public access to the historical Sumner Canyon beach access trail that traverses the neighboring Ellentown tract’s land and is itself protected access under the California Coastal Act due to its history of public use predating the tract’s development.
Neighbors north and south of the reserve have also gained more privacy from the reserve’s closure. I don’t find it to be particularly comforting that UC San Diego’s pending public access plan for the reserve “must receive approval by UCSD’s chancellor,” as no one has gained more privacy from the closure than the official UCSD chancellor’s residence.
Eric Ditzler
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