Welcome to our Newest Board Member

By Beth Mather

The Friends of los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve are pleased to welcome our newest board member, Cindy Burrascano. Although she just agreed to join our board, Cindy is not new to the Friends; she has been working with the Friends for over 35 years. She initially started in the canyon as part of a ranger sponsored bike patrol. But when she saw Mike Kelly working on invasive plants in the canyon, she decided that it would more fun chopping down invasive plants so she started lending her hand and expertise tackling invasives species as well as promoting native plants.

Cindy has an even longer association with the California Native Plant Society (CNPS). While working in biotechnology after receiving her bachelor’s and master’s degree in biology, she was an active participant in CNPS, serving as president, secretary, treasurer, conservation chair as well as serving on the state board. She managed their plant sale on occasion and has been the book chair for many years. That is in addition to her volunteering to pull weeds in the service of San Diego’s birds and plants.

One of Cindy’s specialties is rare plants. Over the years she has helped the Friends preserve the endangered rare plants that we still have in the canyon. She has spent many hours surveying, planting, and weeding them. Cindy has also been actively involved in obtaining regulatory protection for San Diego’s rare plants. She has prepared listing petitions for 3 of our natives plants including Ambrosia pumila which has been found in los Peñasquitos Canyon,. Part in thanks to Cindy, it is currently listed as an endangered species by the federal government.

We really appreciate Cindy’s knowledge of San Diego native plants. If we don’t know what some plant is, we find Cindy. She will probably know.

Please join us in welcoming Cindy to the board.