Tag: Mission Trails Regional Park

Ducks Unanimously Oppose Power Plant at Their Home

Yep, it’s official.  The ducks inhabiting Mission Trails Regional Park have weighed in on the matter of the Quail Brush power plant, and they think the idea is WHACK!

Mission Trails is for Lovers (not Power Plants)

Henry David Thoreau’s poetic Muse was Walden Pond.

John Muir, co-founder of The Sierra Club and avid environmentalist, was “at home” at his beloved Yosemite.

For many of us, Mission Trails Regional Park is the place where we go to be one with Nature.

It was Muir’s mission to “save the American soul from total surrender to materialism.”  He, as one man, was able to accomplish much to protect Yosemite as a national treasure.  Muir valued nature for its spiritual and transcendental qualities. In one essay about the National Parks, he referred to them as “places for rest, inspiration, and prayers.” He often encouraged city dwellers to experience nature for its spiritual nourishment.

Today our community is rallying to protect Mission Trails from those who wish to destroy the park with their Quail Brush Power Plant.  Of course these fossil-fuel henchmen (and women) are the ones who most desperately need to be with Nature.

Mission Trails is for lovers, not for power plants.

Future San Diego Mayor Bob Filner Opposes Power Plant at Mission Trails

One of the reasons I am voting for Bob Filner for Mayor is because, like many community members, he believes the proposed Quail Brush power plant is a bad idea.  Bob was one of the people instrumental in forming Mission Trails Regional Park.  He, like many of us, believes that it must be protected.

“There is absolutely no reason why we should be exposing our children to dangerous and life-threatening toxins and decreasing our local air quality,” Filner announced at the last San Diego Planning Commission meeting.  “Mission Trails Park is a local natural treasure, enjoyed by cyclists, runners, and nature enthusiasts. It is wrong for us to knowingly harm the environmental quality of the park.”

“Installing a gas-powered plant in an area ravaged by the 2003 wildfires makes little sense. As a region, we should be investing in solar power and clean energy, not threatening our environment and the health of our communities,” said Filner.  “As Mayor, I will direct the city to work with the School District, the County, and the Port to bring clean power to public buildings and to help make solar power accessible to all.”

To see the full story – “Bob Filner Joins Opposition to Quail Brush Power Plant at Planning Commission” – go to OB Rag.

Related articles

Cowles Mountain, San Diego Jewel

Hikers pause at the top of Cowles Mountain for a 360-degree view of San Diego.  From up here, you will be able to see the proposed Quail Brush power plant squatting just outside of Mission Trails Regional Park to the west.  Who wants to spend 45 minutes climbing up a steep mountain trail only to look down and see a power plant the size of a football field with eleven spewing smoke stacks??????  What kind of a legacy is this for our children and grandchildren??????  A power plant right next to a city park.  What can they possibly be thinking?  (They’re not thinking.)

Why Save Mission Trails? – by Patty Mooney

I admit it.  Mission Trails Regional Park is my backyard, and I do not want to see, hear or smell a power plant anywhere near this, the largest urban park in the USA.  Yet that is exactly what Sempra Energy and Cogentrix want to do.  They want to stick a grotesque conglomeration with 11 100-foot smokestacks and dozens of electrical towers right on top of Mission Trails where the “wild things” roam.  We’re talking about the home turf of Wile E Coyote and Road Runner.

Of course, as one of the unofficial custodians of this beautiful park, I must now let the world know what is going on in this corner of the planet, and why we must all be concerned about this.

It would be like plunking a power plant down on top of Yosemite or Zion or Central Park.  These are the places that people go for their emotional, physical and spiritual well being.  As Robert Redford said at the Yosemite National Park dedication in 1985, “I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security.  Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad.  Otherwise what is there to defend?”

I personally believe that Mission Trails Regional Park should have the protection status of our national parks, and that the last thing we, as a world community, should do is allow a bunch of greedy energy corporations to ruin paradise.  And that’s why I made this little video with the help of my husband: