The San Diego Zoo Safari Park is a zoo and safari park in San Diego, California, located in San Pasqual Valley. The park houses over 3,000 animals representing more than 300 species. It houses a large array of wild and endangered animals from every continent except Antarctica. The park also includes a botanical garden with over one million plants. In 2022, the park attracted over 1.6 million visitors.
Carlsbad is a beach city in the North County area of San Diego County, California, United States. The city is 35 miles (56 km) north of downtown San Diego and 87 miles (140 km) south of downtown Los Angeles. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 114,746. Carlsbad is a popular tourist destination and home to many businesses in the golf industry.
North County is a region in the northern area of San Diego County, California. It is the second-most populous region in the county, with an estimated population of 869,322. North County is well known for its affluence, especially in Encinitas, Carlsbad, Del Mar, Rancho Santa Fe, Poway and Solana Beach, where house prices range, on average, above $1,000,000. Cities along the 78 freeway have more mixed incomes.
The California Central Valley grasslands is a temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion in California's Central Valley. It a diverse ecoregion containing areas of desert grassland, prairie, savanna, riparian forest, marsh, several types of seasonal vernal pools, and large lakes such as now-dry Tulare Lake, Buena Vista Lake, and Kern Lake.
Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve is a protected area that once served as the natural estuary for neighboring Ballona Creek. The 577-acre (2.34 km2) site is located in Los Angeles County, California, just south of Marina del Rey. Ballona—the second-largest open space within the city limits of Los Angeles, behind Griffith Park—is owned by the state of California and managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The preserve is bisected generally east-west by the Ballona Creek channel and bordered by the 90 Marina freeway to the east.
Richardson Bay is a shallow, ecologically rich arm of San Francisco Bay, managed under a Joint Powers Agency of four northern California cities. The 911-acre (369 ha) Richardson Bay Sanctuary was acquired in the early 1960s by the National Audubon Society. The bay was named for William A. Richardson, early 19th century sea captain and builder in San Francisco. It contains both Strawberry Spit and Aramburu Island.
Mission Bay is an artificial, saltwater bay located south of the Pacific Beach community of San Diego, California, created from approximately 2,000 acres (810 ha) of historical wetland, marsh, and saltwater bay habitat. The bay is part of the recreational Mission Bay Park, the largest man-made aquatic park in the United States, consisting of 4,235 acres (17.14 km2), approximately 46% land and 54% water. The combined area makes Mission Bay Park the ninth largest municipally-owned park in the United States.
Rodeo Lagoon is a coastal lagoon located in the Marin Headlands division of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which is in southern Marin County, California. This brackish water body is separated from the Pacific Ocean by a sand bar that forms Rodeo Beach. Rodeo Lagoon stretches approximately 900 metres (3,000 ft) by 250 metres (820 ft), and is about 2 metres (6.6 ft) deep at its maximum depth. It covers a surface area of about 15 hectares.
Agua Hedionda Lagoon is a lagoon in Carlsbad, California, that is fed by Agua Hedionda Creek. Stewardship of much of the lagoon is held by NRG Energy due to its ownership of the former Encina Power Station. November 2000, Agua Hedionda Lagoon was designated as a critical habitat for the tidewater goby.
Batiquitos Lagoon is a coastal wetland and estuary located between southern Carlsbad and Encinitas, in the North County region of San Diego County, California. The lagoon itself consists of 610 acres with a drainage basin of about 55,000 acres. Its primary freshwater tributaries being San Marcos Creek from the east and Encinitas Creek which flows north along Green Valley, entering the lagoon under El Camino Real and La Costa Avenue, respectively. It is one of the few remaining tidal wetlands on the southern California coast.
Los Peñasquitos Marsh Natural Preserve and Lagoon is a coastal marsh in San Diego County, California, United States situated at the northern edge of the City of San Diego, forming the natural border with Del Mar, California. This bar-built estuary divides a colony of the endangered Torrey pine on a narrow coastal strip. Three streams empty into the lagoon: Carroll Creek, Carmel Creek, and Los Peñasquitos Creek, with a total drainage basin area of 95 square miles.
San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve is one of the largest remaining coastal wetlands in San Diego County, California, United States.
The Claude "Bud" Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant is a desalination plant in Carlsbad, California. The San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA), the recipient of the fresh water produced by the plant, calls it "the nation’s largest, most technologically advanced and energy-efficient seawater desalination plant." Opened on December 14, 2015, the entire desalination project cost about $1 billion for the plant, pipelines, and upgrades to existing SDCWA facilities to use the water.
The San Diego National Wildlife Refuge Complex is a series of wildlife refuges established by the United States National Wildlife Service beginning in 1972. The complex incorporates five refuges in San Diego County and Orange County in California.
Batiquitos Lagoon State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) is a marine protected area in San Diego on California’s south coast. It is part of Batiquitos Lagoon, a coastal tidal wetland lying within the city limits of Carlsbad, and adjacent to Encinitas. The SMCA covers 2000 miles. It protects marine life by limiting the removal of marine wildlife from within its borders.
This is a list of lagoons of California in the United States. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Ecology and Conservation a lagoon is "a body of shallow water with access to a larger body that is restricted by a coral reef or sandbar." Lagoons in Southern California tend to be estuarine bodies with depths of 2 m (6.6 ft) or less. After more than a century of severe ecological disruption, many of California's lagoons have been targeted for restoration, including San Elijo, Malibu, Colorado, and several others.
Golden Gate Bird Alliance is an American 501(c)(3) non-profit environmental organization engaged in bird conservation and environmental awareness. Headquartered in the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California, Golden Gate Bird Alliance was formed in 1917 and incorporated into the National Audubon Society in 1948. With 3,586 members and supporters, Golden Gate Bird Alliance spans Northern California, with a particular focus on San Francisco County, West Alameda County, and West Contra Costa County.
