MISSION BAY – Fiesta Island Dog Owners has completed two major projects and is now embarking on a third.
FIDO, a California nonprofit corporation run by volunteers, has completed construction of a new rock pet memorial.
Also, for the first time, the annual mowing of foxtails on the man-made island was accomplished early enough this year to minimize the plant’s presence.
Foxtails are an annual summer grass whose seed heads have backward-facing barbs, particularly dangerous to dogs and other animals. The barbs’ shape allows them to burrow into skin and fur, causing irritation, infection, and even more serious health issues.
FIDO is also now working on a much-needed, complex multi-year project requiring lots of funding and several levels of city-agency approvals, a plan to build stairs from the berm to the beach on the south shoreline of Fiesta Island opposite SeaWorld.
“We got what we believe to be was one of the first permits the city has ever issued allowing us to do mowing in the island based on the schedule of nature, and not the schedule of man,” said FIDO president Carolyn Chase, noting that the city previously hadn’t allowed foxtails to be mowed early enough to prevent their going to seed — when they’re most dangerous — for fear of disturbing nesting birds.
“We raised the money (to mow) and it worked out great this year because the plant’s growth coincided with the city’s once-a-year mowing schedule,” said Chase.
The city’s Parks and Recreation Board in April 2023 unanimously endorsed a FIDO proposal to re-create a pet memorial in the off-leash section of the island.
For ten years, people using the off-leash area to walk their pets had been placing painted rocks in a six-foot-diameter spot next to a path in the middle of the area to honor dogs lost. The impromptu memorial was ultimately removed by the city.
The pet memorial has been successfully re-created, but there’s a new problem: It’s now too small.
“We now want to enlarge it,” said FIDO member Jean Spengel of the memorial, adding, “It’s pretty much been filled up with rocks painted with pets’ names.”
She said the game plan now is to come up with plans to expand the memorial, consisting of rocks anchored around a central post.
“We had to get a right-of-entry permit to enable us to go in there and rebuild the memorial,” noted Spengel, adding that expanding the memorial will require new plans and new City agency review. That, she noted, will start with vetting by the Mission Bay Park Committee, which advises the Park and Recreation Board on the development, utilization, and policies regarding Mission Bay Park.
FIDO is about to tackle the biggest and most complex of the three Fiesta Island improvement projects: Constructing stairs at the south end of Fiesta Island to access the beach. The nonprofit pointed out that hundreds of dog owners utilizing the island’s off-leash dog section are currently using “a severely eroded, dangerous path down” to the beach that needs to be improved.
“The stairs are going to be a very expensive project, and it will take some time to get the design through up to the Coastal Commission, the City Planning Commission, and the City Council,” said Chase, noting the problem with beach access stems from when Fiesta Island was created through dredging that built up an uneven embankment.
“[The berm] goes from a minimum of 10 feet to 30 to 40 feet on the side across from SeaWorld,” said Chase. “People have found it challenging to get down those berms, and some have fallen, which is why we need stairs.”
Chase said the next step in securing new stairs to resolve this Fiesta Island safety problem is to begin raising money to do the project, and the next step after that is to “find a firm that wants to work with us” on planning the stairs project.
