Roots, Wildlife Corridors, and Why I'm Here
Hello!
My name is Gabrielle Aravena and I'm a California native with a deep passion for all things life. I deeply care for and understand the interconnection of everything on planet earth, from the smallest bug or grain-sized flowers to the mighty oak trees and largest mammals. I try to shape my way of thinking by learning lessons from nature- an ancient practice of indigenous wisdom used by many tribes such as the kumeyaay, whose land we occupy today. I am also a huge advocate for social justice and understand the importance of bringing the voices of those most oppressed to the front. We can't have climate justice without social justice and vice versa. Only when we face our histories and learn from our mistakes can we begin to relearn and reshape our ways of thinking to begin and live in harmony with the world around us.
I joined Preserve Greater Golden Hill (PGGH) because of their focus on healthy canyon initiatives. San Diegans are so rich with green space and most people don't even know they have access to them. According to the Natural History museum, we have over 150 canyons which provide 81% of us with 'Green Space' within 10 minutes walking. This is significantly higher than the national average at only 61%! Each canyon is as incredibly diverse as each neighborhood in San Diego. Some are highly restored and some are sadly not, maybe due to budget, priorities, or simply just the community not knowing how important they are. Canyons, when healthy, can be rich, biodiversity hot spots and serve as vital wildlife corridors within urban areas. I truly believe that the more people learn about them, the more likely they are to want to protect them. In fact, historically San Diegans have preserved many canyons when developers tried to come in and destroy them. Communities came together and fought to protect Tecolote, Peñasquitos, and Switzer Canyon and won! What beautiful inspiration for us to learn from as PGGH is currently helping to stop more high rise housing from being built on A Street and rumors of another project on Ivy Street.
What exists in the Matrix, or the space between canyons, is just as important as the canyons themselves. High rises and over development don't just disrupt our communities, but disrupt the already fragmented wildlife corridors. Unfortunately, in our greed and ignorance humans continue to develop and destroy these passages without a second thought purely for capital gain. Imagine if a huge rock wall appeared on 30th Street, blocking the roadway. How many cars, buses, bicyclists, and those just strolling the neighborhood would have to find an alternate and more difficult route just to get to North Park. Wildlife has had to endure this for decades and it's only getting worse. We have the power to protect and restore these wildlife corridors with Green Architecture and Wildlife Crossings. Every year over 350 million vertebrae animals are killed by car collisions and that's not even including the very important bug pollinators! Wildlife Crossings have been proven to be 90% effective at reducing these collisions, they even save human lives and end up being way more cost effective. My grandmother's house is just one exit away from where the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is being built in Los Angeles. In its completion it will be the largest crossing in the entire world. Just imagine if we connected all our canyons in Golden Hill and South Park. Let's Beat LA! If you want to learn more about wildlife crossings and road ecology I will be hosting PGGH's first book club with a date to be announced soon! We will be reading Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb. If you want to grab a copy, please consider supporting a locally owned independent bookshop or borrowing a copy from a local library first. The Book Catapult on Juniper St has graciously offered to stock copies for us during the month of June. Maybe grab a beer at Fall Brewing next door afterwards as a reward!
We have such an incredible opportunity to protect our home and neighbors, especially the ones with no voice. We need community now more than ever and PGGH is the perfect place to start. Every single one of us has the responsibility of righting the wrongs of our history and past and preserving and tending the land we share space in. Each of us has a unique skill and role to offer in creating a new and more vibrant world. Your skills and voice matters! Everyday we are watching atrocities happen across the world, but there are also so many beautiful stories of community resistance. The only way out is to begin imagining a new world so that we can begin to build it. Realistically, this will require some sacrifice and inconvenience to start, but I believe that the rewards will be abundant and priceless. It's time to start getting comfortable with inconvenience, letting go of individualism, and leaning into community. No one is coming to save us. Only WE can save US. Only we can save our community and our community includes our neighbors that live in the canyons. Please consider joining PGGH today, we need you.
Excited to meet and learn from you soon!
Gabri :)
