The California State Coastal Conservancy will Saturday award a grant to San Diego Botanic Garden (SDBG) during a 1:00 pm site visit and photo opportunity at Ocean Knoll Canyon. During the photo opportunity, Coastal Conservancy representative Sam Jenniches will hand over a State of California novelty check to Ari Novy, PhD, the Garden’s President and CEO. Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath (D-Encinitas) and SDBG Director of Conservation Tony Gurnoe will also be present to celebrate the funding for restoration of the Ocean Knoll Canyon habitat.
The $200,000 grant will allow SDBG and its partners to enhance and restore more than half of the canyon, public land that is located outside the Garden’s campus on property adjacent to Ocean Knoll Elementary School. The project will improve 4.6 acres of a multi-benefit ecosystem that is both a refuge for native coastal plants and animals, as well as a natural area with high potential educational value for thousands of children in the Encinitas Union School District (EUSD).
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to improve native plant habitat at Ocean Knoll Elementary School’s Canyon,” said Novy. “The only thing we get more excited about than preserving plant life in our region is educating kids about our amazing flora. This project allows us to do both.”
SDBG invites press, partners, and community members to visit the project site at the time of the photo opp to join the celebration. Park at the dirt lot at the end of Bonita Drive by 1 pm and meet the group to follow the dirt trail into the canyon.
Details about the project’s scope of work and intended impacts are available in last month’s press release announcing the grant approval, here.
For more information and to RSVP, please contact Ashley Grable at agrable@sdbgarden.org / 760-688-8350.
