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Save Our Heritage Organisation first became aware of this important plant identification project in the summer of 2018, when attractive photographs and in-depth descriptions of plantings in the over 60-acre park cropped up on a Facebook page. Recognizing immediately the great value and interest there would be in this information, SOHO sought out the page's creator. Parish Rye is a City of San Diego park ranger, self-trained plant documentarian, and owner of this vast data collection. We wanted to better understand his scientific methods and to explore with him how to share this horticultural treasure-trove portraying a National Historic Landmark with the public in San Diego and beyond.
This project began in 2007 when Parish and six members of the Mission Hills Garden Club realized that a modern-day inventory or tally of Presidio Park plants and trees did not exist. Because what we now know as San Diego was native tribal land for tens of thousands of years, claimed by the Spanish in 1769, taken over by the Mexican government in 1821, and finally annexed by the United States in 1848, the garden club knew that Presidio Park is an exceptional and unique cultural landscape. So, the members set out to devise and implement a documentation plan.
Parish quickly realized the magnitude of the project. Undaunted, he assumed responsibility for this massive undertaking, which is now complete. It includes in-depth plant descriptions, the identification of 113 genus and 208 species, photos illustrating each plant, the varietal quantity of each plant, and its GPS (global positioning system) location coordinates in the park, and for the first time, the bringing together into one place all three major Plant Surveys of Presidio Park. Complementing the fresh data is Parish's extensive knowledge of the park's historic plant palette and how it informs the significance of this cultural landscape.
Now, in 2019, as San Diego commemorates 250 years of European, Mexican, and American influences and settlement, Parish and SOHO have collaborated to publish this horticultural treasure-trove via SOHO's website. Beginning with a brief history of Presidio Park, the narrative then dives into the park's horticultural development, highlighting the important people who have contributed to its evolution, including George Marston, John Nolen, and Percy Broell, the park's first superintendent. Last, this publication includes a description of Percy Broell's eight maps produced in 1937 with botanical legends, which Rye calls "the true gem that came from this project, aside from the plant survey itself, was the Broell document, and the maps we were able to create from them." With Rye's guidance those 1937 maps and legends were merged and transformed by San Diego State geography graduates.
The work includes an overview of arborist Chauncy Jerabek's three plant inventories, with the third, from 1969, serving as the historical reference point for this documentation.
Thanks to the foresight of the Mission Hills Garden Club more than a decade ago and to Parish's dogged perseverance, and an enthusiasm for partnering with SOHO, this valuable research fills a significant void in San Diego's living history. During our 50th anniversary year and San Diego's 250th anniversary, SOHO is pleased to present the Presidio Park Plant Survey and encyclopedia as a legacy gift to all, and as a resource for the protection and restoration of Presidio Park's historic landscape resources.
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