The Project: Celebrate Torrey Pines

Over the years, the Torrey Pines State Reserve has gone from being a sparsely-visited regional state park to a nationally recognized outdoor destination. It is currently #6 of 387 things to do in San Diego on TripAdvisor.com.

Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, the crown jewel of San Diego's opens space, is under stress from natural and man-made causes. Drought, pestilence, and erosion are changing the landscape of the Reserve and surrounding ecosystem. The Natural Reserve is also stressed by the more than one million people that visit the park annually.

If not preserved and protected, this local natural wonder will suffer inevitable decay and decline.

The goals of the project are:

• Enroll world-class San Diego based landscape photographers to create the "Torrey Pines Collection," a catalog of photographs showcasing this unique and stunningly beautiful Torrey Pines ecosystem
• Connect with the community of people who are inspired by the work of these world-class photographers.
• Engage this community to donate funds to support the efforts of the Torrey Pines Association, the non-profit founded in 1950 to preserve this natural wonder.

The immediate, modest goal is to raise $10,000 by February 20, 2019, to Support the Torrey Pines Association. Other projects will follow.

How will this be accomplished?

This will be done by harnessing the community of great San Diego landscape photographers and their followers with to goal of building community and asking for small donations to jump-start the project. The ultimate goal is the creation of a Torrey Pines 2020 Collection that will serve as both a time capsule and celebration of the reserve and the surrounding ecosystem.

The Plan: Phase 1

• Identify and engage 10 top San Diego based landscape photographers
• Tap into their social media followers on Facebook and Instagram -- tens (or hundreds) of thousand people.
• Get 100 followers for each photographer (total of 1,000) to donate $10 each to the Torrey Pines Association, the non-profit organization that has been guarding San Diego's priceless Torrey Pines heritage for almost 70 years.
  10 x 100 x $10 = $10,000

Possible spinoffs of the core project include:

• Create a Torrey Pines 2020 Collection, a book of these world-class photographs to serve as a companion for the classic book by Bill Evarts.
• Auction off large-scale, framed prints of the top photos (donated at cost by the photographers)
• Create an aerial photo catalog of the Reserve (done via drone). This would be done with the permission of — and in coordination with — the Park Service).
• Participation in the La Jolla Historical Society exhibition in 2020
• Expand the social media community following and engaged in the Torrey Pines Reserve for informational and fundraising purposes.

A bit about myself:

My name is David Barnett. I've lived in the Del Mar and Carmel Valley area for over 40 years.

I founded a web development company (Mind Grind) in 1997 and am the Executive Director of the non-profit Second Saturday Divorce Workshops (SecondSaturday.com).

For most of my time in San Diego, Torrey Pines has been my go-to place for inspiration, peace, and rejuvenation. I have become increasingly aware of the impact of the heavy-visitor traffic, natural erosion and environmental stress.

During the last four years, I have rekindled an old passion for photography. My Instagram catalog of 1,000+ photos has evolved into "almost all Torrey Pines, all the time." People often wonder if I go anywhere else!

This has been done entirely for my pleasure and creativity -- not with any project or goal in mind. The unintended spinoff of this has been that I have become aware, and met, some of the top-notch San Diego landscape photographers that shoot in Torrey Pines.

It's the combination of these three elements that prompted me to envision this project.

• My love for the park
• My photography connection
• My desire to support this San Diego natural treasure

A happenstance conversation at a local restaurant with Peter Jensen, President of the Torrey Pines Association,  is what led to the genesis of this project.

About the Torrey Pines Association

History of the Torrey Pines Association
(information source, TorreyPines.org)

In 1949, the Ellen Browning Scripps Foundation recommended that:

...an organization be ... formed that would be charged with the primary responsibility of guarding San Diego's priceless heritage, Torrey Pines ... permanently.

In pursuit of this goal, the Torrey Pines Association was founded in 1950, with Guy Fleming as its first president. Since then it has played an active role in:

• achieving State Reserve/Preserve status
• leading the campaign to acquire 168 additional acres of native trees
• funding interpretive signs and exhibits
• publishing informational materials and producing educational videos
• establishing an endowment for the benefit of the Reserve
• renovating Visitor Center facilities and the historic Guy Fleming House
• funding bark beetle monitoring and invasive plant eradication efforts
• supporting State Parks with equipment donations
• sponsoring symposia and other events that increase appreciation of the Reserve
• funding a tree census
• monitoring the overall welfare of the Reserve and responding to projects that could reduce native habitat, cut off wildlife corridors, cause further siltation of the lagoon, or threaten the Reserve's integrity

Current Programs

• TPA helps fund the Carmel Valley Road Revegetation Project where Parks staff and volunteers are removing invasive ice-plant and replanting native species along the lagoon margin of Carmel Valley Road.
• TPA is supporting the restoration of the Guy and Margaret Fleming Residence, one of the structures on the National Register of Historic Places, at the Reserve.
• We continue to provide ongoing support for the pheromones used to monitor bark beetles among the pine groves.