Ask any San Diegan what the city’s motto is and they’ll say it’s “The Best City in America.” But what most San Diegans may not know is that it is also the wildest city in America.
With its unique geographic intersection of ocean, mountains, deserts, wetlands and urban development, San Diego County is known as the most biodiverse county in the continental United States, according to The Nature Conservancy.
That’s the theme of “Nature – San Diego: America’s Wild City,” which premieres at 8 p.m. Wednesday on PBS stations and the PBS app. A giant-screen version of the film, titled “Wild San Diego,” will be shown on Nov. 22 for seven years at the San Diego Museum of Natural History.
“San Diego: America’s Wildest City” was written by Nate Dappen and Neil Losin, co-owners of San Diego-based Day’s Edge Productions, which co-produced the 52-minute film with WNET Group and Terra Mater Studios.
Past Day’s Edge film projects include the six-part PBS Science documentary series “Human Footprint” (2023) and “Serengeti: Nature’s Living Laboratory” (2019); and the Inland Passage rafting adventure film “The Passage” (2019), among many others.
Dabin said he, Lucien and their production team have been working on the “Wildest City” project for the past two years. It’s about how San Diego’s wildlife has adapted and survived in landscapes dramatically changed over time by humans and the challenges and opportunities these species face today.
“The first day I arrived in San Diego and walked to the beach at sunset, I looked out at the ocean and listened to the sound of the waves and the seagulls and the seals and knew this amazing place would become my home,” Dabben said. “What I didn’t realize that day was how rich this landscape was. I started exploring and was amazed by the diversity of ecosystems here – deserts, mountains, forests, and the great Pacific Ocean, all just an hour’s drive away. I knew I wanted to make a film that celebrated a different and amazing side of the province’s most… Biodiversity in America.
An aerial view of a local dam, one of several man-made water features in San Diego County that have affected local wildlife species, in the locally produced PBS Nature documentary “San Diego: America’s Wild City.” (Edge Productions Today)
The film looks at a group of wildlife species that are not only native to San Diego County, but have either adapted to or been harmed by the presence of humans, who arrived in this area 12,000 years ago and have multiplied their numbers 500-fold. The number has increased to 3.3 million over the past hundred years. The documentary says humans’ biggest impact on wildlife is how we manage our water resources.
Among the many species observed in the documentary is the Western Grebe, a red-eyed waterbird that nests in man-made reservoirs and lakes. There’s also Allen’s hummingbird, which now nests comfortably in urban backyards, where it can collect nectar from tended gardens and sip hummingbird feeders filled with sugar water. There are the Pacific harbor seals, who take over La Jolla’s 1931-era man-made children’s pool every year as a puppy area.
Common ground squirrels have happily moved their burrows from open fields to parks filled with irrigated grass, plants, trees and water. Desert birds, lynxes and coyotes increasingly depend on humans’ backyard pools, ponds and fountains as sources of water and bathing.
There are also clips in the film about some of the area’s natural wonders, such as the grionon, the silvery fish that spawns on local beaches during high spring tides; the luminous blue tides caused by single-celled algae known as dinoflagellates; And the magnificent wildflowers of the Anza-Borrego Desert.
The bioluminescent blue color off the coast of San Diego was featured in the PBS Nature documentary “San Diego: America’s Wild City.” (Edge Productions Today)
The documentary doesn’t delve into the threat that development, drought, and climate change pose to native plants and wildlife, but it does show some unexpected results.
For example, the city of San Diego recently stopped using automated sand processing machines on its beaches during grunge season because the heavy machinery was crushing millions of eggs laid under the sand. It also shows how when heavy rains force water officials to open dam gates, grebe nests upriver are often destroyed. He explains that crows were not present in San Diego until the 1980s, but were drawn to the area as a fertile hunting ground for thriving birds, squirrels and other prey. It shows how the massive border fence separating the United States from Mexico has cut off roaming species such as deer and coyotes from their former water sources.
Dabin and Lucien met in 2008 in Costa Rica, where they were doing fieldwork for their doctorates. After discovering they shared a passion for photography and nature cinema, they abandoned their plans for an academic career in 2010 and started Day’s Edge, which produced educational and advocacy films about nature, wildlife, agriculture, anthropology and the environment.
Originally Posted: November 5, 2024 at 11:53 AM PT
