San Diego Canyonlands
A grant from the Price Family Charitable Fund is helping San Diego Canyonlands improve four City
Heights canyons: Manzanita, Swan, Hollywood, and 47th St. Through the grant, Canyonlands hired and
trained local residents to map the canyons using GPS and GIS technologies, remove trash and non-native
plants, cut new trails, and organize a friends of the canyon program to maintain the canyons in the
future.
The area’s canyons had been neglected and overrun with homeless encampments, illegal activities, and
overgrown brush. Instead of functioning as a community asset, the canyons had become unsafe and a
fire hazard.
Through the grant City Heights residents are gaining marketable job skills in habitat restoration during
a time of high unemployment, the environment is improving, recreational opportunities are expanding,
and public safety is increasing.
The canyon improvement project is part of San Diego Canyonlands’ master plan to weave canyons into
the social and economic fabric of the neighborhood.