Short Summary

Garber Park is a 13-acre wildland park owned by the City of Oakland located behind the Claremont Hotel in Claremont Canyon. Garber Park is home to significant stands of big-leaf maple, California buckeyes and regenerating coast live oak woodland and forest. The Garber Park Stewards vision is to safeguard the native wildland resources of Garber Park while reducing the risk of wildfire and improving the trail system.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Creek to Bay Day - An Overwhelming Success!

A beautiful day.  A great turn-out of volunteers.  And a flawless execution and support by the City of Oakland.  We began our day by picking up trash along Claremont Ave, clearing Site 29 in the upper Canyon of illegal dumping, and removed trash from Garber.   Then it was on to the major task of the day:  expand Fern Glade by clearing the ivy from a slope nearby.  Once ivy is removed the ferns regenerate at a remarkable rate.  This year we chose an area where there were few ferns – we will use the wealth of Ferns from Fern Glade to transplant into our new ivy free patch. 

But, how to remove a large section of ivy?  THE ROLL METHOD.  Lead by Bob Strayer this group began at the top of the hill, cut and pulled a section and began rolling it in a ball,  pulling and cutting the ivy along the way.  When the “roll” got too heavy and big it was pushed down the hill and dragged into the waiting dumpster, supplied by the City of Oakland.  At the end of the day, the dumpster was almost full, Garber had a huge patch of “ivy free land”  just waiting for the rains so we could fill it with native ferns from Garber, and a group of tired but very satisfied volunteers!   




Fern Glade.  Join us on Saturday, December 12
for our first Winter Workshop with  Lech
Naumovich.  Check back here for details or
contact Shelagh garberparkstewards@gmail.com
Meanwhile, another group was weeding Fern Glade.  It’s essential to keep the area weed free so the ferns – and other natives such as the beautiful Trillium - can continue to fill in where ivy once resided.   We are now waiting for the rains and excited for this year’s 1st workshop by Lech Naumovich, December 12, where he will teach us how to transplant ferns.  We hope you will join us.  Details to follow. 


Thanks to Marilyn Goldhaber for sharing her pictures.  To view more click here. 

Join us for our October workdays – Tuesday, October 6 and Saturday, Oct. 17 where we will continue removing invasive plants and mulching our restoration sites throughout the park to support the growth of Garber's native plant species.  


Thanks everyone for a fun and successful 2015 Creek to Bay Day!