Fieldtrips
Indian Rock
Spring 2003

Hidden Meadows
Fall 2003

The Glens
Fall 2003

Legend Rock
Fall 2003

Camp Pendleton
Spring 2002

Gathering Juncus
Spring 2002

Field Tripping
Spring 2002
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Waterfall
Fall 2003

The Glens
Text by Deborah Small
Images by David Fleischman and Deborah Small

Four months later, in August 2003, we return to the site. A new sign hangs at the entrance of the development with the evocative sounding name, The Glens. Of Gaelic derivation, a glen is a narrow, secluded valley. The name, I imagine, is meant to conjure a verdant rural meadow somewhere in the British Isles of our fantasies. Construction has begun and three model homes are about to open.

Return to family values in a picturesque location . . . pastoral surroundings . . . tucked away . . . a master-planned golf community . . . proximity to downtown San Diego . . .

The sign for The Glens development advertises 2,700 square foot homes, 3-6 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2-3 car attached garages, the low $400,000’s . . .

The mutilated oak trunks are gone now, the grinder moved to another area of the development. The ancient Luiseño village site is still surrounded by the plastic orange fence demarcating it from the rest of the landscraped development. Two giant rocks have been split. Inside the fence, half the rocks with their metates and mortars are protected. Outside the fence, the other halves were pulverized for landfill. Another giant grinding rock with bedrock holes and basins has been moved from the development area into the site to save it from being crushed and pulverized as well.

The gooseberries are now leafless in their summer dormancy, and the laurel sumac is beginning to seed. Rhus trilobata, or skunkbush, an important Luiseño basketry plant, grows everywhere on the site, but the wild peonies growing just outside the fenced area are now completely gone.