Garber Park Stewards
Volunteers dedicated to protect, preserve, and restore the beauty and natural open space of Garber Park.
Volunteer Waiver Form
Short Summary
Thursday, August 22, 2024
Summer Volunteer Days
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
As we start 2024 and look back at 2023!
Happy New Year!
2024 has arrived!
2023 saw Garber Park Stewards hold 27 volunteer days with 224 volunteers for a total of 702 hours in the park! Thank you all for a very successful year and we look forward to trying to exceed that number as our goal for this year, and I think we've had a pretty strong start.
With the January rains and some winds we started this year by doing some trail work, uncaging some older oaks and caging some smaller oaks. If you walk up the Alvarado entrance of the park you'll notice that we cleared fallen Eucalyptus debris and mulched the trails to make for a more comfortable and accessible walking experience! This was all thanks to our regular volunteers and a lot of new faces when we had our MLK Day of Service!
We started the day with a few goals in mind, but we were able to exceed those expectations with a total of 19 volunteers! We separated into two groups, one that was going to work on Eucalyptus removal and mulching up at the top of the Alvarado entrance, and another that was going to be focused on uncaging some oaks that had outgrown their cages and transfer them to some smaller baby oaks to give them a better chance to thrive in the park.
The Alvarado group ended up filling 21 green waste bags, which were generously removed by the City of Oakland, thank you Oakland! They then mulched all along the trail leading to the Horsetail Meadow, where they were also working to widen the path in a few places that it had started to narrow. It now feels very nice and is back to being a comfortable walk, where you don't have to worry about tripping on your feet!
Volunteers are working to increase the path width to make for a more comfortable walking experience through Horsetail Meadow. |
Volunteers work to remove the cage around a group of native plants that have outgrown the need for it. |
The oak caging team at the end of the day, having placed protection on 11 young oak trees. |
Banana Slugs (most likely Ariolimax columbianus) are roaming(gliding?) the trails of Garber Park! These large mollusks are coming out and enjoying the winter rains and the wet environment they bring! As you walk around the park, keep an eye out for these slugs that can grow up to 10" long, as you don't want to accidentally squish any! Come join us on our upcoming Volunteer Days on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month as we continue restoring areas of Garber Park to be better suited for native species, and in doing so, creating a more fire safe park for everyone. If you'd like to volunteer with us visit our Volunteer Opportunities page for more information and if you'd like to join our mailing list please email Wyllie at gpstewards@gmail.com. Take a look at our past eventsFun Snapshots of our Restoration Efforts at Garber ParkMLK Day of Service: Seeds of HopePlant Highlights at Garber Park |
Tuesday, August 22, 2023
Thursday, October 20, 2022
June 2022 Volunteer Days
Spring Surprises!
As spring starts to turn into summer in the park, we start to see some of our plants go to seed and spread the next generation! The official start of summer this year is June 21st, so these were our last spring workdays of the year, which is bittersweet, as spring holds so much plant and people activity in the park!
June 4th- Ruby and Sam (one of our youngest volunteers) share a teaching moment, while his mom helps weed around some Horsetail sprouts |
June 4th- Volunteers are pulling invasive weeds in Horsetail Meadows to help the natives |
This was an exciting day for a scavenger hunt in Fern Glade! With our wonderful group of volunteers we searched under the ivy for native plants to uncover. The mat of ivy seems pretty dense but sometimes we find native plants, especially ferns in the most unexpected places, and we try to create a buffer from the ivy around them. This buffer serves a few different purposes; to make the area easily identifiable to revisit, to allow room for the plant to grow, and also allow an area for their spores to spread and get established.
June 18th- Volunteers are pulling ivy and non-native grasses in Fern Glade to uncover native plants. |
June 18th- Volunteers are pulling and bagging ivy and non-native grasses in Fern Glade to uncover native plants. |
Come join us on our upcoming Volunteer Days on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month as we continue restoring areas of Garber Park to be better suited for native species, and in doing so, creating a more fire safe park for everyone.
If you'd like to volunteer with us visit our Volunteer Opportunities page for more information and if you'd like to join our mailing list please email Wyllie at gpstewards@gmail.com.
If you're interested in seeing what's in bloom through the seasons at Garber Park, please take a look at our Plant Highlights Page!
Take a look at our past events
Fun Snapshots of our Restoration Efforts at Garber Park
MLK Day of Service: Seeds of Hope
Plant Highlights at Garber Park
Saturday, October 8, 2022
May 2022 Volunteers Days!
Traveling Back in Time to May 2013
Our blog is a time capsule! Taking a look back at our previous blogs, a special moment popped up.
Where it all started
Garber Park has been transforming into a beautiful wildland ecosystem with diverse plant and animal species! We owe it to Shelagh Brodersen for starting the Garber Park Stewards in 2010 in an effort to make Garber into an more accessible public park where people could experience the beauty of a healthy native plant ecosystem and build community around the park. So many volunteer hours have been dedicated towards building and maintaining a trail system, allowing native plant communities to grow and expand, and building an amazing network of volunteers!
Looking back we see some familiar faces and we are very thankful to continue seeing our long-term and new incoming stewards as well! One of our highlighted moments is the restoration of Fern Glade, where there is a continual effort to free the ferns from the invasive English ivy and ehrharta grass (as they are some of our most invasive plant species in that area). If you're a long time volunteer, you know how these plants are a constant effort to remove. This work is also very rewarding as the results are visible right away! With that, here are some photos that were dug from our Archive and some details as to what was happening on this very special day.
May 2013 : Fern Glen Workshop and Restoration - A Huge Success!!
"Come to Garber, walk the Sylvan Trail, and peek into our Wildlife Habitat Pile to see what creatures have made a home!" Garber Park Blogpost 2013 |
"Establishing the Fern Glade Restoration Site by freeing the ferns and other natives of Hedera (Ivy)" Garber Park Blogpost 2013 |
Time-lapse Video of Fern Glade Restoration in 2013 |
May 2022 : We are continuing this work today - Returning Volunteers and long-term dedicated stewards arrived at Garber Park to continue the efforts that started what now is Garber Park.
May 21st - Volunteers are clearing Eucalyptus and other debris. |
Our second volunteer day, we dedicated it to removing flammable debris from around the Fireplace area. With the fire season starting earlier, we try to keep on top of some of our more concerning areas, such as near Fireplace Plaza, in which lots of flammable Eucalyptus debris builds up - in some places it accumulated over 4 inches! May was a lot of fun and had a lot of success, from clearing over 10 bags of debris to limiting the spread of invasive grasses in Fern Glade. We thank all Garber Park volunteers whose dedicated time has allowed for so much work and transformation to be made! Thank you!
Come join us on our upcoming Volunteer Days on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month as we continue restoring areas of Garber Park to be better suited for native species, and in doing so, creating a more fire safe park for everyone.
If you'd like to volunteer with us visit our Volunteer Opportunities page for more information and if you'd like to join our mailing list please email Wyllie at gpstewards@gmail.com.
If you're interested in seeing what's in bloom through the seasons at Garber Park, please take a look at our Plant Highlights Page!
Take a look at our past events
Fun Snapshots of our Restoration Efforts at Garber Park
MLK Day of Service: Seeds of Hope
Plant Highlights at Garber Park
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
April 2022 Volunteer Days!
Earth Month in April!
Four volunteer workdays, two workshops, one ceremony, and a full dumpster!
Earth Month Efforts
We started off with a call to action as part of our Earth Month 1,2,3! Initiative. This encompassed our first three workdays of the month, in which we had multiple organizations join us and share in the work...and snacks! All of this effort payed off as we logged over 150 hours of volunteer time in April!
April 2nd : Garber Park Stewards joined by the Cal Rotaract club
This amazing group helped clear debris left behind by the removal of a downed tree across the stairs to the Evergreen Lane entrance and an array of other activities. We started the day by eating snacks and learning about the interests of our volunteers and how, for many, it was their first time in Garber Park! It was so fun to get invigorated with everyone's passion as we went over the tasks before us. We separated into two groups, one to clear the debris on the stairs and the other to weed and clear around the Fireplace.
The two groups made fast work of the objective and then we switched to mulching the trails and removing Eucalyptus debris. We were able to fill quite a few bags, and finished the day in a more relaxing, but rewarding ivy pulling and fern finding session in Fern Glade. Once everyone seemed satisfied, we went back for more snacks, debriefed, and a large group decided to go for a self-guided tour of their neighborhood park!
April 9th : Oaks, thistles, and trail maintenance!
For our second weekend we were joined by our dedicated UC Berkeley volunteers, who helped us mulch the top of the Loop Trail leading towards the switchbacks. Mulching makes the trails more resistant to erosion and makes it less slippery for hikers and runners who enjoy the park. Around one of the switchbacks we also had a struggling oak, in which volunteers helped us try and uncover the root crown, to allow for proper air circulation and lower the stress on the oak. Oaks like to have a slightly exposed root crown, but growing next to the trail means that it can become covered and compacted, which can stress the tree and may even lead to its eventual death, so uncovering these root bases is very helpful to a healthy oak woodland ecosystem. After uncovering the oak, we then moved on to tackle some thorny thistles in Horsetail Meadow. The volunteers took this on with glee, and made a quick and fun work of pulling hundreds of thistles!
April 16th : Welcome CAL Habitat club!
This week we were joined by the CAL Habitat club to continue with thistle removal, work on the trails near the Alvarado Road entrance, and finished the day with some more fern finding and ivy removal.
We started by splitting into two groups, a trail group led by one of our long-time volunteers and trail coordinator, Alex, and another to tackle the thistles in Horsetail Meadow. Trail work is a critical component of a safe and usable Garber Park. The trail near the Alvarado Road entrance was crumbling in a few places, so we worked with a small but dedicated crew to shore up the sides to limit erosion and hold the trail in place. This seemed to have an immediate difference in creating a safer and more comfortable walk on the trail.
Our other team was very gungho on removing thistles and pretty much cleared the open area in which they were sprouting! After that they moved to work on another invasive plant, English Ivy in Fern Glade. The experience was definitely rewarding for all, and we are happy they stuck it out through our initial wet weather conditions!
April 23rd : Earth Month Cleanup!
The city of Oakland provides us bins sometimes so we can conduct large clean-ups of the park. With the bin we were able to remove all the previously cleared tree debris, and the Eucalyptus debris that volunteers had collected. We had a small but dedicated crew that allowed us to get the dumpster over 3/4 full! It was a large and momentous effort but well worth it, as it's one of the few times a year that we can remove a lot of debris quickly from the park, which really helps us lower the fire hazard and create a safer space for everyone. A special thank you to our long-time volunteer Ricardo, who worked with us and let us use his truck to haul down all the debris to the dumpster!
April 24th : Botanical Plant ID Walkthrough
We partnered with East Bay CNPS chapter member and long time steward, Janet Gawthrop, for a Botanical Walkthrough of the park. The goal was to help interested stewards learn a bit about plant identification and work to update the list of species found in Garber Park, which hasn't been updated since 2017. It was a deeply enlightening event where everyone was able to learn so much and we were also able to add a few native plants to the list that weren't previously recorded! Thank you Janet, and to everyone who joined!
April 30th : A Special Celebration for Shelagh Brodersen
Founder, Garber Park Stewards
To wrap up this amazing month, in partnership with the Claremont Canyon Conservancy, we held a special ceremony to honor one of our founders and sponsors, Shelagh Brodersen. Shelagh started the Stewards around 2010 with the purpose of opening up Garber Park for everyone by making it more accessible, promoting a healthy native plant ecosystem, and building a community around the park. 12 years later and those goals have been successful, with our wonderful trail system installed, our bustling native communities, and successful network of volunteers! With that in mind, a plaque was installed on the Fireplace, honoring Shelagh and her work with the Garber Park Stewards. A celebration was held and many long-time stewards gathered to acknowledge Shelagh and remember the hard work put into the park. The work isn't over, but Garber Park wouldn't be what it is today without her dedication and efforts - Thank you Shelagh!
Another special event was a workshop by Lech Naumovich, titled, Building Community and Climate Resilience at Garber Park. Lech was also pivotal in forming a plan to restore the park, leading educational workshops, and educating volunteers. He was there to honor Shelagh and explain where Garber Park is heading, the things we can expect, and the actions we can take to help. It was a very nice and educational walk through parts of the park, and we were given a multi-part strategy to keep in mind.
Overall, we had a very bustling and fruitful Earth Month! Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers and the clubs that helped make this such a success! Garber Park is only made possible through the community's action and we thank you!
Come join us on our upcoming Volunteer Days on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month as we continue restoring areas of Garber Park to be better suited for native species, and in doing so, creating a more fire safe park for everyone.
If you'd like to volunteer with us visit our Volunteer Opportunities page for more information and if you'd like to join our mailing list please email Wyllie at gpstewards@gmail.com.
If you're interested in seeing what's in bloom through the seasons at Garber Park, please take a look at our Plant Highlights Page!
Take a look at our past events
Fun Snapshots of our Restoration Efforts at Garber Park
MLK Day of Service: Seeds of Hope
Plant Highlights at Garber Park