One of Clairemont’s most popular canyon cut-throughs is getting a reputation for all the wrong reasons. Regulars on the Keller Canyon trail say the route that funnels into Marian Bear Memorial Park is choked with dead trees, overgrown brush and scraggly palm clusters that look more like kindling than landscaping. The hiker who first raised the alarm says she has been filing reports through the city’s Get It Done app, only to watch the vegetation grow and the responses, in her view, stall out.
Hiker’s report and complaints
Marie Hartwell, a longtime Clairemont resident who hits the Keller Canyon trail often, told CBS 8 she has submitted three or four maintenance requests through the city’s Get It Done system and has seen little to no visible follow-up. She describes a corridor littered with dead trees, heavy brush, graffiti and trash, and says pockets of Mexican fan palm in particular make parts of the passage feel like a ready-made fuse. Hartwell is talking about the narrow stretch that connects Keller Canyon into Marian Bear Memorial Park and the broader Tri-Canyons network used by hikers and mountain bikers.
Non-native palms and why experts worry
Her worries about those palms are not just a hiker’s hunch. San Diego Canyonlands notes that Mexican fan palms tend to form dense, highly flammable stands and have been singled out for removal in local restoration work. On its Navajo Canyon restoration page, San Diego Canyonlands outlines a plan to cut down hundreds of these palms to lower high-fire-risk conditions and bring back native plants. The group also points out that taking out the palms helps reduce erosion and supports the recovery of riparian habitat.
The UC Master Gardeners of San Diego County back up that concern, listing Mexican fan palm as an invasive species whose dead fronds can create a fire hazard. Their guidance, available from the UC Master Gardeners of San Diego County, reinforces Hartwell’s argument that those shaggy, untrimmed skirts of palm fronds are not just an eyesore.
City response: checking maintenance reports…