September 27, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

My upper arms are nice and sore this morning! Yesterday I was at Sweetwater Park near the E street marsh and at Gunpoweder Point. Last time I had been there was over 15 years ago, and I remember that area well from junior high and high school years. I had taken Marine Biology as an elective one summer at Hilltop High School, but we essentially spent a glorious summer at what was known back then as “The Chula Vista Nature Interpretive Center.” It was such a wonderful peaceful summer observing birds and fiddler crabs, and coloring sheets about marine life.

So I was back at that area, now as Dr. Plastic Picker and a pediatrician. There was a general call out to help in the area, and I had sent it out to our department and also at our clinic. We had 5 amazing youth and adults from our own clinic, and we helped plant 100 native plants into a barren area that had packed dirt after likely decades of industrial use.

It felt so very wonderful being there with two of my own patients. We dug holes and planted native plants, and we created berms and watered the berms multiple times. We applied sunscreen, and hydrated out of a common watering station. We made sure we all rested and hydrated. I saw someone watering one of the new plants in the ground and there was this beautiful rainbow that blessed her.

I really enjoyed digging those holes! I think in total my pediatric patient and climate partner dug 15 holes and we planted 15 native plants together. We noticed a spider, and I noticed that he noticed a spider. It was a really interesting spider. We got to share these patches that now medical student Wayne Mai made years ago!

Sharing those patches with the youth that came by felt REALLY REALLY GOOD! I had paid for those patches years ago, and it had been designed with love by one of our then premedical students (who is now a medical student). I had lost them and then I found them this summer! So they are finally being put to good use.

We have about 150 more patches? So I’ll make sure to do enough events to deploy the rest of the patches. This is our contribution from San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air!!!

It felt so good to learn how to dig holes! I had honestly never thought about how to dig a good hole. I got to share with my husband, my in-laws, and my own extended family (especially my nephew) how interesting it was to dig holes in the impacted dirt. He gave me some pointers on wearing real boots next time we dig holes. He said it would have made it easier.

But my upper arms are sore and I have a well earned blister, and I am so happy that I was able to be with four really wonderful people I know from work and clinic. We helped plant 100 native plants at an area that is an important habitat for native birds in the south county.

And I got to think about digging holes and watch other people dig holes, and I told my 17 year-old patient that how one approaches digging holes is really a metaphor. It was good to get down into the ground and do some real climate work yesterday!