Chollas Creek is an urban creek in the city of

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

that drains to the

San Diego Bay San Diego Bay is a natural harbor and deepwater port located in San Diego County, California near the U.S.–Mexico border. The bay, which is long and wide, is the third largest of the three large, protected natural bays on California's of c ...

. It is also the name of a populated area of City Heights, San Diego, California. Chollas Creek arises in Lemon Grove and La Mesa, where its four branches begin. It empties into the Bay at

Barrio Logan Barrio Logan is a neighborhood in south central San Diego, California. It is bordered by the neighborhoods of East Village and Logan Heights to the north, Shelltown and Southcrest to the east, San Diego Bay to the southwest, and National Cit ...

. The long creek and its small canyon are undeveloped, although portions of it have been armored or channelized. It has been described as "one of San Diego's most neglected watersheds." For decades the creek has been plagued by pollution, illegal dumping and the destruction of natural habitats. In 2002, the city of San Diego adopted a 20-year, $42 million plan to rehabilitate the creek. Regular cleanups to remove trash and encourage native plants are conducted by local groups such as the Friends of Chollas Creek and Groundwork San Diego. In 2021, the city of San Diego decided to create the Chollas Creek Regional Park along many of the undeveloped parts of the creek's branches, to make better use of these areas and to remedy a long-standing lack of parks in southeastern San Diego.

References

{{coord missing, San Diego County, California Rivers of San Diego County, California San Diego Bay watershed Landforms of San Diego County, California La Mesa, California Rivers of Southern California