Moments in Time with Dave Van Cleve: Coyote Canyon – A Desert Surprise
David Van Cleve has many ties to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and Anza-Borrego Foundation. In the 1980s, he was an environmental scientist in the San Diego regional office, where he collaborated with park staff on many significant natural resource projects. In 1989, he was selected to serve as the superintendent of the state park. In 1994, his responsibilities were expanded to include management of six other state parks (Mt. San Jacinto, Cuyamaca Rancho, Palomar Mountain, Salton Sea, Picacho, and Indio Hills) in addition to Anza-Borrego. After retiring from state service, he worked for The Nature Conservancy as Ecoregional Director for the South Coast Ecoregion and added over 1,000 acres to the Park. Each month, Dave will fill in some important issues in the history Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, which often dove-tail with the history of ABF. We are grateful for his wealth of knowledge of the Park and willingness to share with us.
Coyote Canyon – A Desert Surprise
One of my favorite areas of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is this watershed. It’s biologically rich due to the presence of surface water. The water supports a large riparian biotic community and provides habitat for several endangered species—the least Bell’s vireo, mountain lion, and desert bighorn sheep among them. Three oases—Lower, Middle, and Upper Willows—are top drawer for biodiversity. The mouth of the canyon, combined with Henderson Canyon, is reliably a good spot to see one of the most spectacular wildflower displays in the Park.
Its archaeology and anthropology are remarkable, revealing a deep and enduring connection between people and the land. For countless generations, the Cahuilla people and their ancestors relied on the canyon’s resources for food, water, shelter, and cultural traditions. Today, Cahuilla communities continue to maintain strong cultural and ancestral ties to this landscape, reminding us that the canyon is not simply a place of the past, but part of a living Indigenous heritage.
Historically, its story is unmatched: From the early incursions of Lt. Pedro Fages to the long, difficult treks led by Juan Bautista de Anza. From the deadly end of the brutal Garra Indian revolt to the early American settlers—some of whom burned each other’s homes and belongings due to a boundary dispute. The years when four-wheeling up and down the canyon, sometimes all the way to the town of Anza or Hemet, was extremely popular. And the many attempts to open the canyon to a highway from Riverside County to Borrego Springs and dam up the creek to create a recreational lake.
Odd fact—”Cougar Canyon” was a takeoff from the canyon’s earlier name—”Krueger Canyon.” George Krueger was a big wheel from the Brawley Chamber of Commerce. (Diana Lindsay, Anza-Borrego A to Z). Sorry, George, your chance at infamy was lost in the wind.
In the Coyote Badlands, while not the most productive paleontological region of the Park, scientists have discovered fossils of early beaver, Gila monster, and canine species. It boggles the mind to imagine what this region looked like and felt like when these ancestral animals, and others, roamed what is now the Park. (George Jefferson and Lowell Lindsay, Fossil Treasures).
But this blog will not go into detail about these topics. My blogs are centered on the period from 1981 to the present. I try to record important events of the Park during the decades of my involvement—as an environmental scientist, superintendent, Anza-Borrego Foundation board member, and Park volunteer.
As an environmental scientist at the San Diego Regional Office for the State Park System, beginning in 1981, I soon found my attention drawn to Anza-Borrego, Cuyamaca, and Palomar—three of the finest state parks in the Parks Department. I oversaw the disbursement of small grants to individual parks in Southern California for projects such as native plant restoration, prescribed burning, removal of non-native plants and animals, and endangered species protection.
Anza-Borrego had a slew of important projects (not surprising given its size and diversity), and they were always completed in time and met their objectives. If a project could be made more impactful by additional funds, the local project manager—Mark Jorgensen—had a broad network of sources for extra capital.
The earliest project was the trapping of brown-headed cowbirds at the mouth of Coyote Canyon. These abundant non-native birds were known to “parasitize” the nests of the endangered least Bell’s vireo. The females would lay their eggs in vireo nests. When hatched, the young cowbirds were larger and more aggressive than the vireo chicks and would get most of the food. This process was damaging the entire LBV species.
Traps were built and placed along the cowbird’s travel routes. The birds found it easy to enter the trap and feed on the bait, but the traps were designed to make finding a way out difficult.
A park aide was hired to manage the project—setting and emptying the traps. Cowbirds were given the option of cervical extension or thoracic squeeze as their final wish, and the vireo numbers began to rebound.
Next was tamarisk tree removal. Another non-native species, this time imported from the Mideast. Tamarisk spreads rapidly, especially in areas with water—streams, springs, and waterholes. It would use up water that soon would become unavailable to native wildlife.
Tamarisk spreads quickly via seed dispersal. Though this plant is widespread throughout the Park, Coyote Canyon was an early site for removing tamarisk. Equipment—loppers and chainsaws—was purchased, and a team of park aides was tasked with “cleaning up” Coyote Canyon.
Since tamarisk spreads by seed, the strategy was to begin at the head of the watershed—far up Coyote Canyon. It would be inefficient to begin at the bottom and leave the seed source intact, allowing it to float downstream into treated areas.
These techniques, developed and refined at Coyote Canyon, created the protocols for the rest of the Park.
With most non-native species, once the project is begun, it must be continued. Tamarisk will continue to populate streams and springs vital to desert wildlife. Cowbirds will continue to parasitize vireo nests. The goal is to make a huge dent in the non-native population. Rarely is the problem eliminated, but moving the needle in the right direction is a success.
Without doubt, the largest—and most controversial—project was to reroute the primitive road that ran through Lower Willows—the largest of Coyote Canyon’s three oases. Again, motor vehicles had been driving up the creek in increasing numbers since World War II. The average number of vehicles was 9,000 per year. (Lindsay)
In 1975, Paul Jorgensen studied the impact of motor vehicles on bighorn sheep’s ability to access water. The results indicated unacceptable impacts during the summer, when access to water was vital to the sheep. As usage increased, park managers decided to protect the Lower Willows oasis and its resources.
To preserve recreational opportunities, the Park offered to construct a “bypass road” up a dry canyon just south of the creek. It would still allow for a recreational off-roading experience while avoiding impacts to resources. The outrage from the off-road community was immediate and vigorous. They wanted to continue using the creek.
Public meetings were held, articles were written, and lawsuits were filed. In the end, the bypass was built, and the oasis was protected in 1987. Vehicle access was still allowed to Middle and Upper Willows.
Further monitoring indicated that the resources of these two oases were also being negatively affected. But managers knew that another public opinion firestorm would ensue if these oases were closed.
In January 1995, a massive winter storm stalled over Coyote Canyon. A violent flood raged from canyon wall to canyon wall. Massive boulders were relocated. A friend of mine grabbed his whitewater kayak. I thought he was nuts. Once the storm abated, it was impossible to drive through Middle Willows.
Managers decided it was the right opportunity to eliminate motor vehicle traffic. Another part of the equation in this decision was internal politics. We had to make sure the “chain of command,” all the way to the Parks Department’s Director, supported the decision. Finally, all systems were “go.”
Again, public meetings, articles, and lawsuits. One ironic proposal of the off-road community was for the Park, rather than ban vehicle access, to construct a bypass road around the two oases—a concept they had protested through legal means a few years earlier. Again, the Parks Department won the lawsuits, and the ban was initiated.
And another tidbit for Anza-Borrego Foundation. ABF’s first sustained fundraising effort was the Desert Gardens project in lower Coyote Canyon. Garden clubs throughout California would send donations to the Foundation to help it purchase inholdings for the Park.
Some of my previous ABF blogs tell stories from this region not duplicated here.
Most of Coyote Canyon is state wilderness. October 2025
Cattle removal from the Park. Ground zero was the Vern Whitaker Horse Camp in lower Coyote Canyon. Existing horse corrals were used to release live-captured cattle for transport to Brawley. As one of the cowboys moving the cows said, “First time I’ve ever seen a cow fly upside-down!” November 2025
Airplane landing. September 2026. Park Pilot Gene Hammock made an “unscheduled landing” in a Coyote Canyon wash and dinged up the plane a fair piece.
Geographic Information Systems. The legacy work performed by Pilot Jon Muench and GIS specialist L. Louise Jee to prevent the destruction of Coyote Canyon.
During the Pines Fire of 2002, the CalFire Incident Commander ordered three large bulldozers to Coyote Canyon to cut a fire line up and down the creek. Three dozers wide. Their aerial work convinced fire managers that the fire would never reach the canyon, and the bulldozer work was canceled.
In my mind, this is one of the least-known and underappreciated acts of conservation in Park history. Under the pressures of time and trying to change the minds of experienced, well-meaning fire managers, Jon and L. Louise performed a miracle and “saved” this iconic environment. March 2026
For more information on Coyote Canyon—its resources and the remarkable souls who explored, farmed, ranched, drove, drank in, and protected this remarkable valley—read sections of Diana Lindsay’s incredible and meticulously researched book, Anza-Borrego, A to Z.