Meet Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve’s City Rangers
By Beth Mather
We are fortunate to have a great crew of rangers at the Los Penasquitos Preserve and I thought it would be fun to learn a little bit more about them.
Many of you may know our senior ranger, Gina Washington, because she has been a ranger at Los Penasquitos Preserve almost 24 years! When Gina was hired as a park ranger at Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve on July 2, 2001, she encountered a sink or swim situation. After her first 2 days on the job, Bill Lawrence, the head ranger, left for vacation so Gina was on her own for 4 th of July duty. Fortunately, she survived this test. Her background had prepared her well. From a very early age she loved to tell stories and share interesting facts. Her parents always encouraged her ask questions and learn new things and they frequently suggested jobs that involved interpretation. In high school, Gina made a vow to herself to never work in food service, but she wanted money to buy a car. This required her to look for alternative forms of employment. This was the start of her journey to become a park ranger. Her first job was with the State of Washington Department of Transportation Ecology Youth Corp, presenting to elementary school programs using a musical (she went by the moniker Jammin’ Gina B), to promote recycling. Through the next summer and senior year of high school she worked as a Park Guide for the US Army Corps of Engineers at Bonneville Lock and Dam Visitor Center, developing and presenting interpretive programs for the 1,000s of daily visitors. Then she moved to the outdoor ranger group responsible for the Projects enforcement and land management. After that position ended, she worked various jobs in the Columbia River Gorge learning construction skills and more customer service skills. This led to a seasonal position with Oregon State Parks as a Park Aide at a campground. When she moved to San Diego, she was hired with the City of San Diego Parks and Recreation Dept here at Los Pen. She was promoted to Sr. Park Ranger in December 2004. Gina says she has enjoyed every day of those 24 years spent working in the Preserve with amazing people. She is still learning, even after 24 years, and she especially enjoys sharing interesting facts with anyone who will listen.
Our 2nd long term ranger is Melanie Fontana Chiappone who has been a Park Ranger for Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve since September 2014. Before coming here, she was an outdoor adventure guide and environmental educator at UC Santa Barbara, where she received her B.A. in Environmental Studies. Melanie was thrilled to be hired to a full-time position here at Los Pen Preserve right out of college in her preferred field. She enjoys being a generalist, seeing to habitat health, trail repairs and educational programing with Gina, Megan, and the unending help of volunteers and partners like the Friends of PQ. The ecosystem and people of Los Pen have provided guidance and steadiness throughout pivotal times in her life - no longer a scraggly 23-year-old with leather-bottomed feet. She even met her now husband in Del Mar Mesa Preserve. No matter the frustrations inherent to governmental land management, she reserves mental space to always be grateful for a career that is composed of little good deeds, and for all the time she gets to spend communing with this gorgeous, living landscape, its myriad constituents, and her wonderful coworkers.
Our newest ranger, Megan Delaney, graduated summa cum laude from San Diego State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Recreation Administration with emphasis in Outdoor Resource Management. She decided on this career pathway as a result of volunteering with a longtime friend doing trail maintenance on the Pacific Crest Trail. Her friend was a trail crew leader/organizer for the Pacific Crest Trail where Megan helped her on a scouting and assessment excursion. This work inspired Megan to get into land management. Megan was originally hired as an intern under the supervision of the City of San Diego Open Space Biologists and later transferred to Los Penasquitos Preserve as the first park ranger intern. After her internship, she was hired as a Park Ranger Aide at Tri-Canyons Open Space Park. She really enjoyed working at Los Penasquitos and eventually she made her way back when she was hired here as a Park Ranger in August of 2023.
Our three rangers make a great team. Each ranger has her own special skill and expertise thatn helps them function efficiently as a team. Gina, of course, has encyclopedic knowledge of the Preserve and the workings of the city. She also has lots of ideas for Preserve improvements. Melanie takes pride in being the fact person, so you can ask her about plants, animals, habitats and other things. Megan plays the role of organizer, keeping their projects running smoothly and is also is very knowledgeable. All three of our rangers agree that Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve it is a great place to work.
Here is a parting fun fact about our ranger team: We have the first and only all-female team in the city’s park system.
Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve city rangers Megan, Gina, and Melanie
