2020 Mat Hakuum (Jacumba) Lake Restoration

San Diego CA

  • Practicing small burns on the bottom of the lake

  • Jacumba 2 years post restoration

  • Jacumba 2 years post restoration

  • Planting 77 native California Fan Palms around the lake

  • Walk through with Lacey and her teacher Richard Bugbee, checking on lake health

  • The lake on the first day of the walk through for the restoration

  • Under the guidance of Kumeyaay ethnobotanist Dr. Richard Bugbee, Lacey Cannon led the restoration of the seven-acre Jacumba Lake, removing salt cedars and other invasive species to foster healthier ecosystems. In their place, the team planted 77 California native fan palms, ensuring a source of edible food sovereignty, and introduced basket-weaving plants that naturally purify the water. Three floating islands—designed as mobile wetlands—further enhance water quality. This project not only renews traditional relationships with the land but also illustrates how community-led stewardship and ancestral knowledge can restore vibrant, self-sustaining landscapes.

Mat Hakuum

Jacumba lake restoration in San Diego

Jacumba lake restoration in San Diego

San Pasqual Constructed Wetland

  • Kumeyaay Baskey Weaving plants and Boat making plants being layed out for planting

  • Students from All Tribes Charter learning from Lacey about water plants and how they can clean the water and be used for cultural activities

  • Harvesting tule for Kumeyaay boat making just 8 months after planting

  • The area when Lacey began the project

  • On the San Pasqual Reservation, a constructed wetlands project guided by Lacey Cannon and developed through collaboration with Kumeyaay ethnobotanist Dr. Richard Bugbee and wetlands expert Dennis Shamrhd embodies community-led ecological restoration. Designed to cleanse storm drain runoff—thereby protecting both local baseball fields and the surrounding watershed—this living landscape renews relationships with native plants central to Kumeyaay basketry and watercraft traditions. In doing so, it reaffirms enduring ties between people, land, and water, while honoring cultural knowledge and contemporary expertise working in tandem for future generations.

Hantak Creek Restoration

on The San Pasqual Reservation

  • The creek filled with invasive mustard

  • Restoration

  • After

  • In 2019, under the leadership of Lacey Cannon, a community-driven effort at Hantak (Frog) Creek removed two dumpsters’ worth of invasive weeds and restored the creek’s flow. Following this cleanup, 300 native medicinal and edible plants were thoughtfully placed, renewing longstanding relationships between people and their environment. This initiative returns the creek to its role as a source of cultural sustenance and ecological resilience, ensuring that knowledge, health, and well-being continue to flow through the land.