A busy Saturday morning on Coast Walk Trail was made busier by a few dozen volunteers, who planted themselves among the trail’s usual walkers, runners and photographers to pull heaps of weeds and invasive plants from the adjacent hillsides.
Coast Walk Trail is a path measuring just over a half-mile, running along the bluffs in La Jolla from Goldfish Point and Coast Boulevard east to Coast Walk.
Designated historic by the city of San Diego in 1990, Coast Walk Trail is known as a “paper street,” listed in city records under the Transportation Department as it was once planned for vehicular travel.
Nonprofit group Friends of Coast Walk Trail, which endeavors to preserve and maintain the trail, organized the “weed pulling party” April 6 to clear the path of several types of invasive plants that can crowd out native species and, due to the plentiful winter rains, overtake the trail itself.
After visiting the registration table at the trail’s south end and picking up gloves, tools and tarps, along with instructions of what to pull, about 50 volunteers stationed themselves along Coast Walk Trail, pulling as much as they could.
Friends of Coast Walk Trail’s founder, Brenda Fake, estimated nearly two tons – 84 tarps of weeds – were removed from the path.
Volunteers worked individually, in families or couples and as part of various local organizations including the Rotary Club of La Jolla and The Bishop’s School.
“It’s our community,” said Bob Evans, president of La Jolla Parks & Beaches. “It’s our front yard, it’s our backyard.”
“I can’t stand weeding,” he said as he yanked out stems above Goldfish Point, “but I love the outcome.”
Alonna Medina with Black Sage Environmental, a land management company that often services Coast Walk Trail, worked alongside the volunteers (as did a few of her colleagues) to pull the invasive plants, careful to shake the nutrient-rich soil back onto the hillside.
Medina enjoyed seeing the dozens of volunteer assistants on the trail, she said. “It blew my mind.”
