The Otay Mountain Wilderness is a U.S. Wilderness Area located in San Diego County, California, 12 miles east of the city of

Otay Mesa Otay Mesa ( ) is a community in the southern section of the city of San Diego, just north of the U.S.–Mexico border. It is bordered by the Otay River Valley and the city of Chula Vista on the north; Interstate 805 and the neighborhoods of Oc ...

and just north of the Mexican border. Some parts of the wilderness area rise quickly from sea level, reaching a peak of just over at the summit of Otay Mountain.Longmire, S. (2014) ''Border Insecurity: Why Big Money, Fences, and Drones Aren't Making Us Safer'
page 62
Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved March 7, 2015 Wilderness status was conferred on October 7, 1998, effectively preserving 18,500 acres under protection of the

Wilderness Act The Wilderness Act of 1964 () was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society. It created the legal definition of wilderness in the United States, and protected 9.1 million acres (37,000 km²) of federal land. The result of a lon ...

, a component of the National Wilderness Preservation System.Congress (U.S.) (2004) ''Congressional Record'', V. 144, Pt. 17, October 7, 1998 to October 9, 1998
page 24176
Government Printing Office. Retrieved March 7, 2015 The legislation was signed by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

Schad, J. (2007)
Afoot and Afield: San Diego County: A Comprehensive Hiking Guide
'' Wilderness Press. Retrieved March 7, 2015 on December 11, 1999.

Geography

The wilderness lies in the San Ysidro Mountains, of which

Otay Mountain Otay Mountain is a mountain located in San Diego County, California. It is the highest summit of the San Ysidro Mountains. The mountain is located in the Otay Mountain Wilderness Area. The physical border separating Mexico and the United Stat ...

is the highest summit at . The mountain, and its immediate surroundings, are extremely rugged and include steep, often precipitous, canyon walls and hills. The public lands within the Otay Mountain Wilderness are one of the last remaining pristine locations in western San Diego County. Adjacent to the Mexican border, it is internationally known for its diversity of unique and sensitive plants. The area plays a critical role in San Diego's multi-species conservation plan.

Natural history

Cupressus forbesii Survivor Tree Coal Canyon

The San Ysidro Mountains are remnants of a chain of ancient volcanoes from which meta-volcanic soils form, sustaining a diverse chaparral community dominated by

chamise ''Adenostoma fasciculatum'', commonly known as chamise or greasewood, is a flowering plant native to California and Baja California. This shrub is one of the most widespread plants of the California chaparral ecoregion. Chamise produces a specia ...

(''Adenostoma fasciculatum''),Faber, P.M. (2005) ''California's Wild Gardens: A Guide to Favorite Botanical Sites'
page 194
University of California Press. Retrieved March 7, 2015 mixed chaparral and coastal

sagebrush Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus '' Artemisia''. The best known sagebrush is the shrub '' Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrushes are native to the North American west. Following is an al ...

habitats.United States. Bureau of Land Management. California State Office ''California Wild!'', Fish & wildlife 2000 series publicatio
page 40-41
The Bureau. Retrieved March 7, 2015

Flora

The world's largest stand of Tecate cypress (''Cupressus forbesii'') are found at Otay Mountain Wilderness, as are at least 15 plant species that are candidates for federal listing as threatened or endangered species. In all 37 plant species found on Otay Mountain are listed as sensitive by the

California Native Plant Society The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) is a California environmental non-profit organization (501(c)3) that seeks to increase understanding of California's native flora and to preserve it for future generations. The mission of CNPS is to con ...

, at least five, including the Tecate cypress, occur only on Otay Mountain or in the immediate are. Particularly important species include: * Cleveland's monkeyflower (''Mimulus clevelandii'') * Mexican flannelbush (''Fremontodendron mexicanum'') * Otay Mountain lotus (''Lotus crassifolius'' var. ''otayensis'') * Southern mountain misery (''Chamaebatia australis'') * San Miguel savory (''Clinopodium chandleri'') * Gander's pitcher sage (''Lepechinia ganderi'') Chamaebatia australis 5

Endangered speciesUnited States. Bureau of Land Management. California Desert District (1985) ''Preliminary Wilderness Recommendations for the Western Counties Wilderness Study (western San Diego and Western Riverside Counties), California ; Prepared by Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, California Desert District'
Appendix A
The District. Retrieved March 7, 2015

* San Diego thorn-mint (''Acanthomintha ilicifolia'') * Parish's button-celery (''Eryngium aristulatum'' var. ''parishii'') * Otay tarweed (''Hemizonia conjugens'') * Dehesa bear-grass (''Nolina interrata'')

Rare species

* Dunn's mariposa (''Calochortus dunnii'') * Slender-pod squaw cabbage (''Caulanthus stenocarpus'') * Mexican fremontia (''Fremontodendron mexicanum'') * Gander butterweed (''Senecio ganderi'')

Fauna

The diversity of habitats within the wilderness area maintains a variety of indigenous fauna, including a number of rare or endangered species. The most numerous large animal is the

mule deer The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related whi ...

. Species of special concern on Otay Mountain include: *

California gnatcatcher The California gnatcatcher (''Polioptila californica'') is a small long insectivorous bird which frequents dense coastal sage scrub growth. This species was recently split from the similar black-tailed gnatcatcher of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan ...

* Orange-throated whiptail *

Coast horned lizard The coast horned lizard (''Phrynosoma coronatum'') is a species of phrynosomatid lizard endemic to Baja California Sur in Mexico. As a defense the lizard can shoot high pressure streams of blood out of its eyes if threatened. Taxonomy It was ...

Endangered species

Bighorn sheep The bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') is a species of sheep native to North America. It is named for its large horns. A pair of horns might weigh up to ; the sheep typically weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subspec ...

Quino checkerspot butterfly The Quino checkerspot (''Euphydryas editha quino'') is a butterfly native to southern California and northwestern Baja California. It is a subspecies of the common Edith's checkerspot (''Euphydryas editha'') and the second such subspecies to be ...

* The

arroyo toad The arroyo toad (''Anaxyrus californicus'') is a species of true toads in the family Bufonidae, endemic to California (U.S.) and Baja California state (México). It is currently classified as an Endangered species on the IUCN Red List of Threa ...

, resident of the

Tijuana river , name_etymology = , image = Presa Tij 1.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = Dam on the Tijuana River in Mexico. , map = Tijuana River Basin.svg , map_size = 250 , map_caption ...

, is affected by erosion occurring on the Tijuana watershed, within the wilderness area, which causes silting of its habitat.

Protected species

Mountain lion The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

* Southern bald eagle

Border wall

In the mid 1990s, as part of

Operation Gatekeeper Operation Gatekeeper was a measure implemented during the presidency of Bill Clinton by the United States Border Patrol (then a part of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)), aimed at halting illegal immigration to the United States at t ...

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...

contractors began to build a border wall,Azaransky, S. (2013) ''Religion and Politics in America's Borderlands'
page 169
Lexington Books. Retrieved March 7, 2015 and associated access roads. The initial phase of wall building extended from San Diego only as far as the foothills of Otay Mountain.Tuer, D. (2005) ''Mining the Media Archive: Essays on Art, Technology, and Cultural Resistance'
page 162
YYZ Books. Retrieved March 7, 2015 An environmental impact statement carried out prior to a

waiver A waiver is the voluntary relinquishment or surrender of some known right or privilege. Regulatory agencies of state departments or the federal government may issue waivers to exempt companies from certain regulations. For example, a United St ...

of an environmental law, required to allow construction within the wilderness area, concluded that the work on the border wall would have long-term impacts on plant, animal and water courses within the area. Grading and construction of roads in the wilderness area would result in removal of layers of topsoil and delicate, intertwined root systems that protect dry chaparral habitat from erosion. The wall itself disrupts the ability of migratory animals, like the

javelina A peccary (also javelina or skunk pig) is a medium-sized, pig-like hoofed mammal of the family Tayassuidae (New World pigs). They are found throughout Central and South America, Trinidad in the Caribbean, and in the southwestern area of North ...

, to roam freely across its natural range. In December 2008 work began to continue the wall's progress through the wilderness area, under the auspices of the Secure Fence Act of 2006.

Notes

IUCN category obtained fro
Protected Planet: Otay Mountain State Ecological Reserve entry
Retrieved March 7, 2015.

References

{{authority control Wilderness areas of California Protected areas of San Diego County, California San Ysidro Mountains South Bay (San Diego County) Bureau of Land Management areas in California Protected areas established in 1999 1999 establishments in California