competitions

from College Times Courier, April 9th, 2021

by San Diego Community Newspaper Group

Gorge

EDUCATION Robotics teams continue tournament success

By JAY WILSON

Last month we wrote about the success of several of the FIRST LEGO League teams which are comprised of students attending schools within the Patrick Henry Cluster boundaries. On March 27 and 28, our teams did very well in the FIRST Tech Challenge San Diego Qualifying Tournament.

The Dapper RoboNoodles (#18365) is a local community FIRST Tech Challenge team. They are rookies to FIRST Tech Challenge. However all but two of their teammates competed each The Dapper RoboNoodles team (Courtesy photos) year in FIRST Lego League starting as fourth graders at Dailard Elementary. They are now four around. The claw was a custom eighth graders from made 3D printer piece by one of Pershing Middle School: our teammates. A standout of Kacie Hernandez, Sophie their robot is the googly eye stickMiller, Brady Quinn, ers. Not just for a fun aesthetic, Saranzaya Rice-Connor, but the stickers served a purpose and three seventh grad- so the driver could keep their ers from Lewis Middle “eyes” on the linear actuators to School: Kelsey Gunter, prevent overworking the gears. Allyson Mangahis, and They competed in the FTC San Ben Xavier. Diego Qualifying tournament The team designed du- and their team was awarded al linear actuators with a Ptolemy League’s first place in two-sided claw attached robot design. to move and lift rings as Another local community part of their goal. The FIRST Tech Challenge team, claw opened and closed The Wizalos (#14129), also with a servo motor which competed in the 2021 “Ultimate also helped move other The Team Wizalos robot parts of the game field SEE ROBOTICS, Page 16

Innovating sidewalks for seniors with ‘bots

By JASON POLIAK

My friends and I are elementary school students, and we are the FIRST LEGO League #50899 Mechanical Meatloaf (with a slice of pickles) robotics team. Mechanical Meatloaf team at work (Courtesy photo)

I live in Alvarado Estates and many of you have that they would like the cars to seen a few of my friends and I be slower and roads to be safer. in the garage working when Some of the more active seniors you pass by our house. We are said that they are not personally working on a robotics competi- afraid of uneven sidewalks, but tion. As part of this competition, other people might have a harder we needed to come up with an time and trip. They would also innovation idea on how to help like to see more nature and anisenior people come outdoors mals with more exercise stations more often. We surveyed the for seniors. people of the neighborhood with Our idea started out as five questions: How often do you “smooth senior sidewalks” but walk? What would you like to see as time passed, we decided to more of? Do you enjoy walking? create an innovation idea to Is there anything that concerns make exciting outdoor spacyou about walking on the street? es for seniors. We just had our What are some of the reasons qualifying robotics tournament that you come out to walk? on March 6 and that idea won

Most senior people come out the innovation project award. mostly for fresh air and exer- We are advancing to the southcise. Some people also said they ern California championship on would like to see more sidewalks. April 10. Wish us luck! People said they also would like to see more animals. Some peo- —Jason Poliak is a resident of ple in the neighborhood said Alvarado Estates.

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sdnews.com

Endangered plant project at Mission Trails Park

By MARK BERNINGER and MARK DODERO

The City of San Diego is home to some of the most rare and special plants in the Southern California region. One of those rare plants is San Diego Thornmint (Acanthomintha Ilicifolia).

The city started monitoring these plants more that 20 years ago as part of a groundbreaking Rare Plant Monitoring Program, which is part of the Multiple Species Conservation Program (MSCP), enacted in 1997 to preserve habitat and help conserve the region’s spectacular biodiversity.

The Mission Trails Regional Park (MTRP) Foundation has been a critical partner in the MSCP, and they partnered with the city once again to help improve habitat and increase the park’s populations of San Diego Thornmint. The MTRP Foundation applied and was awarded a grant from the TransNet Program at SANDAG, and these funds allowed the Foundation to engage local rare plant expert Mark Dodero and RECON Environmental to expand the park’s San Diego Thornmint populations. After three years, the project reached the end of grant funding and it was a smashing success! The population of plants that once numbered under 100 individuals in 2017 blossomed to over 800 plants in spring of 2020. This is great news for this population at Mission Trails, but the work is far from over. Preserving each population and their genetic diversity is critical for a robust regional conservation effort.

The partnership that the MTRP Foundation has with the City of San Diego is a great example of the collaboration it will take to bring San Diego Thornmint and other rare and endemic plants back from the brink of extinction. Sharing the story of this success will hopefully lead to more opportunities to develop secure funding

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to expand and enhance conservation efforts across Mission Trails and, in doing so, boost the resiliency of the rare plants across the entire Southern California region.

OVERVIEW OF PROJECT

San Diego Thornmint is found only in San Diego County in the United States and in northwestern Baja California. Populations of San Diego Thornmint are declining throughout San Diego County, and are threatened by pressures from urban development, habitat disturbance, and invasion of non-native species with as many as one-third of historical occurrences believed to have been lost. Thornmint typically grows in open areas with little competition with shrubs and other plant species.

The initial focus San Diego Thornmint Expansion Project in 2017 was to get the non-native weeds under control so that the Thornmint plants would have less competition for light and water. Also, during that first year, the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research’s Native Seed Bank began growing out additional Thornmint plants to produce as many seeds as possible. Prior to any seeding efforts, monitoring of the plant population in the spring of 2018 revealed the presence of 43 Thornmint plants in the natural population.

In the second year of the project, the weed control efforts

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Thornmint plant in Mission Trails Regional Park (Photo by Sara Allen, City of San Diego)

continued and the first lot of bulked Thornmint seed was provided for dispersal. Fenced cages were constructed at the site to protect the seedlings from rabbits and rodents. The seeds were dispersed a few days prior to heavy rainfall, grew well and flowered in the spring. A total of 374 Thornmint flowered and set seeds successfully. Of those 374 plants 319 plants were found in the natural population and 55 plants were found in the seeded plots. Each year of the project, weeding reduced the cover of non-native species and this led to an increase in flowering native species.

In the project’s final year, additional Thornmint seeds were produced by the San Diego Zoo, and seed collected by the project biologists from the seeded and natural population were dispersed throughout the area. Because of dry conditions, the project biologist and maintenance crew gave supplemental water to the seedlings. This supplemental water allowed the seedlings an opportunity to survive until natural rainfall began again, enabling the plants to grow and successfully flower in the spring of 2020. A total of 846 Thornmint plants grew at the site in 2020. This represented an increase of over 800 plants from the beginning of the project.

Through partnerships between public agencies such as the City of San Diego and SANDAG and private groups like the Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation and San Diego Zoo, good conservation outcomes are possible.

For more Mission Trails news and features, visit missiontimescourier.com.

—Mark Berninger is Natural Resources Manager for the City of San Diego and Mark W. Dodero is Senior Restoration Specialist at RECON Environmental.

LEARN MORE about the San Diego Thornmint Restoration

Project at Mission Trails by watching a presentation with Mark Berninger about the project on the YouTube channel of the Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation, or through the MTRP website, or by visiting youtu.be/ OJXZ21Q9T8g.

CONTINUED FROM Page 9

in the design and funding stage. What will this leave for commuter parking and how much of that parking space will be used by SDSU students?

Our Council member is our voice. Give his voice greater strength by our participation.

Join our Spring Spruce Up Community Cleanup from Saturday, April 17 through Sunday, April 25 in honor of Earth Day. Participate by: • Picking up trash during your walks • Properly disposing of pet waste • Ensuring that trash bins are fully closed • Replacing trash bins and lids that are damaged or missing • Cleaning up after using public spaces • Keeping yards and sidewalks clean and maintained

Post a selfie on social media using #AGGBeautiful for a chance to be featured on our website, Facebook, and Instagram! Ask your neighbors to join in keeping Allied Gardens and Grantville beautiful!

We just heard from the folks who run the First Friday Concerts about this summer. They emailed the following: “We are keeping a close eye on city and county regulations. We would love nothing more than to get a few concerts in this season but it is all contingent on securing proper permits.” Let’s hope that this great tradition can continue.

Use the “Contact Us” page at aggccouncil.org to get on our email contact list, to receive notices of the activities of our community council and the Navajo Community Planning Group, Inc., and to let us know how we can help you support our neighborhood. Our next board meeting will be on Monday, May 3 at 6:30 p.m. by Zoom. The public is encouraged to attend. —By Allied Gardens/Grantville Community Council president Shain Haug

SAN CARLOS AREA COUNCIL

Welcome Spring! Some facts about the month of April: Its name is derived from the Latin word “aperit,” which means to open. It’s the month of the growing season when trees and flowers begin to “open.” Some believe that the month is named after the Greek goddess, Aphrodite (Aphros). Other themes include resurrection and redemption. So there’s a lot packed into this month. Those of us who have sheltered from COVID for over a year can see now see light at the end of this tunnel. April brings all of us hope for a brighter future. Keep your eyes open for the orange poppies along our highways, and if you have not visited the San Carlos Community Garden yet, do it. You’ll be glad you did.

At our latest meeting, the San Carlos Area Council received the following updates:

The police report for the month of February included zero violent crimes, 17 property crimes, nine thefts from vehicles, one residential burglary, two motor vehicle thefts and five thefts. There were 30 citations issues and 17 arrests in the San Carlos area.

The DEA National Prescription Take-Back Program will occur on Saturday April 24, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at 9225 Aero Drive, San Diego, 92115 where you can drop off your expired or unwanted prescription drugs. Please don’t flush your old drugs down the toilet or add them to the landfill.

Mike McBride, San Diego Fire & Rescue Fire Chief, advised us to make it a habit of changing out our home’s smoke detector battery when Daylight Savings Time occurs. Make sure the smoke detector and CO2 detector are operating correctly. Mike mentioned that coming this May, you may notice that Fire & Rescue teams will be practicing their skills at Mission Trails Regional Park with fire trucks, engines and a helicopter. Mike also spoke about brush management and how we all need 100 feet of defensible space around our properties. Toward that end, we’d like to direct you to the San Diego Fire & Rescue Brush Management Video which was produced by Crystal Pyramid Productions in 2012 and features beloved newsman Loren Nancarrow who volunteered his time as a spokesperson for this important educational video. View at youtu.be/T1DUk7OB_9E.

If you would like to become more involved in your community

SEE COMMUNITY BRIEFS, Page 17