EARTH DAY IN GARBER PARK

Date:  Saturday, April 16    Time:  9 a.m.- NOON

Where:  Evergreen Lane Entrance

The Garber Park Stewards invite you to our second annual EARTH DAY event in Garber Park.  For folks who came last year, much has changed including the sunlighting of our springs and creeks, the substantial improvement of our Loop Trail, and the commencement of native restoration at our entrance hillside.  For volunteers who have not yet visited John Garber Park, Spring in all its manifestations will greet you.

We have a varied menu of activities for this EARTH DAY:

     For weeders and eco-academics alike, we will maintain, document, and weed our hillside restoration beds near the Evergreen Lane entrance, including Fireplace Plaza.

     For weed bashers and invasive plant warriors, we will continue our labors among the Himalayan Blackberry and focus heavily on the Cape Ivy near Horsetail Meadow and the Springs.

     For those who are especially concerned about Sudden Oak Death, Lech Naumovich, Botanist, will pre-survey Garber Park to help us identify areas and trees which we might test in the upcoming Sudden Oak Death (SOD) Blitz on April 30-May1. 

Maintenance at the Restoration Site

Today we focussed on our Hillside Restoration Site at the Evergreen Lane Entrance.  We weeded the planting beds and began eradication of the Cape ivy and Poison Hemlock that are trying to take over the area between the planting beds.  Lots of good news:  the plants ALL seem to be healthy, and the False Solomon’s Seal is blooming!  And, lots of new ferns and some native blackberry are emerging on the hillside.  Fireplace Plaza also received some much needed TLC.

Next Workday in Garber Park:  Earth Day on Saturday, April 16 from 9AM-Noon.  Meet at the Evergreen Lane Entrance


     

MARCH 19, 2011 GARBER GALLERY

Looking past the sturdy limbs of the Coast Live Oak at the Evergreen entrance to Garber Park.


A wood fern thriving in our Restoration Area.



The gorgeous colors of Spring at the Evergreen entrance.

Another Fun Day in the Rain

Where is the Himalayan blackberry?  Gone!
In its place snowberry, ferns, and cow parsnip.

It's raining so it must be a Saturday workday in Garber Park!  A stalwart group of three headed to the Harwood Creek area on the Lower Loop Trail.   The Himalayan blackberry bashers have been chopping away at the huge blackberry stand in this area since last fall, and have cleared the area along the creek from the Lower Loop Trail all the way to the Upper Loop Trail, freeing large stands of snowberry, ferns,  willows, and bay trees.  Today's task was to remove the last bit of blackberry growing amidst the snowberry, as well as the broom, poison hemlock, and Cape ivy that was only beginning to invade the area.  At the end of the day we looked up the hillside from the trail, smiling at what we have accomplished - we were looking at a hillside of snowberry, ferns, and cow parsnip.
Meanwhile, Mary was at The Restoration Site at the Evergreen Lane entrance conducting the first monthly photographic documentation of our recent planting on the hillside.  The plants are all thriving and enjoying these spring rains.  When we finally get a bit of sunshine we hope you will find time to come and walk the Loop Trail, enjoying Garber Park in its Spring beauty.

April Workdays:  Tuesday, April 2, 10AM-Noon, and Saturday, April 16 (Earth Day), 9AM-Noon.  We will be taking advantage of the soft ground to pull cape ivy, poison hemlock, and French broom, as well as trail maintenance and cleaning up the area around Fireplace Plaza.

A Glorious Day in Garber Park

The Garber Park Stewards had a rare day of sunshine for their Tuesday workday.  With Lech’s guidance we completed our Restoration Planting at the Evergreen Lane entrance.  We also had a special visitor, Rebecca Tuden, newly hired City of Oakland Watershed Specialist, who has been assigned the Measure DD project in Garber.  With Lech as our guide we had a most wonderful botanical walk through the park , introducing Rebecca to Garber, and observing the park in early Spring, with the buckeyes and big leaf maples budding, as well as the understory plants such as ferns, horsetail, and cow parsnip just beginning to emerge.  

We hope you can join us for our next workday, Saturday, March 19. Our planting completed we will once again turn our attention to eradicating the invasives, especially Cape ivy, French broom, and Himalayan blackberry.  As usual we will meet at 10AM at the Evergreen Lane entrance. 

  

RESTORATION PLANTING--A GREAT PARADE TO RAIN ON

   

Bob and Lech laying out the planting beds

Though we scheduled the planting of our hillside restoration project for Saturday, Feb. 19, in fact we started on the 18th because there was so much to do.   It was freezing cold and wet on Friday; the weather folks promised a mostly dry day on Saturday, but of course, the chilly, wet low pressure system outlived its welcome and made Saturday pretty miserable also.  None of us could show up for the bright sunny Sunday that followed, but seven of us did appear on Monday, Feb. 21, President's Day and we did finish the layout and planting.  Most important, we all had fun and finished each day with a great sense of satisfaction at a job well done.

Waiting to be planted

Stand at the Evergreen Entrance and you will see five separate restoration areas in which about 140 appropriately chosen native grasses, reeds, and shrubs have been planted to maximize their chances of survival and establishment.  We will watch them and document them throughout the year to observe which ones are the most comfortable and which ones do not particularly thrive. 

Our goal at the entrance hillside is to maximize the opportunity of increased sunlight on the 90 degree slope (made possible by the felling of the eucalyptus) to enhance the California Buckeye forest which occupies that area. As we have noted before, the Buckeyes are fast becoming a rarity in California and thoughtful conservation here in Garber Park might contribute substantially to their survival.  Attempting to restore a grassy, sunny hillside at the entrance has a long term function and a greater goal. 

Teamwork 

Our challenge of course is maintenance based on consistent documented observation – a challenge we are looking forward to as we continue with our twice a month stewardship days. 

Our next workday is Tuesday, March 1 @ 10AM.  We hope you will join us and watch our plants flourish.


For more on our restoration efforts see our January 30 blog entry-Restoration Begins

Special thanks to Lech Naumovich, Botanical, Conservation, and Restoration Consultant,
who worked with the Garber Park Stewards to develop the restoration plan.
His knowledge, energy, and enthusiasm as Team Leader was the primary reason
for our success.

COMMENT ON A COMMENT

“An Opportunity for Refreshment of Body and Mind”

Recently, we were asked: “I am a little unclear as to who actually owns the park. Is the land owned by EBPRD and is part of Claremont Canyon preserve?”

On the face of it, there is a simple answer—the land is owned by the City of Oakland and John Garber Park is an Oakland City park. Garber Park is NOT “part of” East Bay Regional Park District’s Claremont Canyon Preserve but it IS “part of” Claremont Canyon.

A brief chronology of the land and the park starts with a prominent family of the old Claremont District, Judge and Mrs. John Garber, who in 1888, built a spacious mansion close to the site of the current Claremont Hotel on grounds that came to be known as the Bellrose Tract. (The mansion on Tanglewood Road was later demolished to build the Hotel.)

The heirs of the Garber estate acting through Frank D. Stringham, husband of Garber’s daughter Juliet, and later, Mayor of Berkeley, offered the eastern segment of the Bellrose Tract—basically the mansion’s backyard—to the Berkeley City Council at the half-value of $2,500 on the condition that the land be maintained as a park with the name John Garber Park. The deed including the conditions was recorded March 4, 1920.

The January 25, 1920 San Francisco Chronicle article links the sale and the conditions to a public conversation then-current on the topic of urban open space: “The spot is certain to become a popular resort and demonstrate its community value as the other parks and playgrounds of the City are doing every day. Every piece of ground thus added to the open spaces of Berkeley should be an occasion of public rejoicing on account of what it means both to those now living and to future generations who will find here in a city much more congested than at present, an opportunity for refreshment of body and mind.”

In early 1952 John Garber Park along with another remnant of the Bellrose Tract were deeded from the City of Berkeley to the City of Oakland, which in turn became bound by the covenants of use and name. It appears that this transfer formalized the fact that Berkeley’s John Garber Park was in fact and long had been within the boundaries of the City of Oakland.

In the early 1970s, in response to intensive upland residential development, Berkeley’s Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Association promoted the creation of a Claremont Canyon Preserve which included Garber Park, thus reflecting the geologic and biologic unity of the canyon for which Garber Park and its environs are the lower riparian mouth. This proposal resulted in mid-canyon acquisitions by the East Bay Regional Park District that became the Claremont Canyon Preserve, but Garber Park remained within the City of Oakland and is in fact cut off from the Preserve by intervening private property, developed and undeveloped.

Throughout this century of jurisdictional succession, John Garber Park has experienced several cycles of use, decline, and repair, but has managed to retain its unique wildland character. Now standing at the 21^st century threshold of comprehensive restoration, Oakland’s John Garber Park still offers an outstanding “opportunity for refreshment of body and mind.”

Mary Millman

Friend of Garber 2