Creeks are the Children of Watersheds

Harwood Creek in Garber Park

Creeks are the children of watersheds; watersheds are the parents of creeks. With concern for our newly discovered springs and recently sunlighted Harwood Creek, the Garber Park Stewards devoted a good part of this past week to making acquaintance with the complex world of East Bay ridge watershed and creek organizations. First impression: there are lots of them and their numbers are growing. These organizations may represent differing aspects of their watershed, their creeks may embody varying stages of health and restoration, and their constituents may share a wide or narrow range of goals, but resource conservation, however defined, and restoration in the broadest sense are the twin heartbeats of this familial group.
We started by attending the members meeting of Friends of Sausal Creek, an exemplary pioneering creek and watershed organization to which the Garber Park Stewards are already deeply indebted. We went there, however, to hear about the work of one of their “sister” organizations, the Friends of San Leandro Creek. We learned that San Leandro Creek flows westward out of Lake Chabot and, partly above ground and partly culverted, makes its way to what is now the Oakland Airport where the creek creates the marsh that you traverse as you drive in. The Friends of San Leandro Creek have worked with the community for a number of years to promote and monitor water quality and to carry out extensive watershed education through carefully and professionally designed programs specifically crafted to fit the grade level of the local students.
We also learned of the upcoming meeting of the Alameda County Watershed Forum. The Alameda County Watershed Forum (http://www.alamedacountywatersheds.org/) functions as a facilitator of communication among county creek and watershed groups and between these groups and larger or higher conservation organizations such as the U S Dept. of Agriculture’s Alameda County Resource Conservation District and its Watershed Council (http://www.acrcd.org/).
At the Forum meeting, conducted at Oakland’s Peralta Hacienda Historical Park which includes a substantial section of old Peralta Creek, we were interested to hear the advice and experience of various restoration experts on the topic of “Remediated Creek and Habitat Site Maintenance”. This is an important topic for Garber Park which has the opportunity to build maintenance into its restoration plans. Not all past creek remediation has been able to do this, often with unhappy results.
Though networking takes time away from field work, in this instance the benefits are timely and valuable to us. In spite of years of neglect, in this decade and in times to come, Garber Park with its many resources is not alone. Moreover, there is a growing body of creek and watershed experience specific to the East Bay ridge lands and available to anyone for whom wildland preservation and restoration is a priority. In recounting these events, we have spared you and ourselves the alphabet soup that goes along with agency awareness. Speaking for the Stewards, we are ready to get our hands in the dirt again.
Restoration of our entrance hillside begins next week!

Mary Millman

Friend of Garber 2

Trail Improvements

One of the activities that the Garber Park Stewards has carried out over the past year is the amendment and improvement of the one-mile Loop Trail that traverses most of the forests and ecosystems that make up the Park. We have replaced deteriorating steps at the Evergreen Lane entrance and cut “steps” in the most steep sections.  We have also tried to channel away water runoff, level sloping walkways, widen eroded spots, and buttress trail boundaries. Recently we put some wire mesh on the Upper Loop bridge to try to improve traction.

Even with these measures, however, care must be taken when hiking in Garber Park because the trail is still rugged and quite steep in places. At the Evergreen Lane entrance there are some walking sticks; please use them and return them for the next walkers. If you walk down the stairs to Fireplace Plaza and along the Lower Loop trail you can also avoid the steep switchbacks on the Upper Loop Trail. The entire trail is easier to walk if you begin at the Fireplace Plaza and walk the lower section first.

The Stewards always appreciate feedback and information about specific points or conditions on the Loop Trail. We will continue working to improve it and to explore alternative routes. This is always a collaborative effort. We especially want to thank the many volunteers who have helped make the trails just a little bit safer.  

January 15 Stewardship Day

Thanks to all who came to spend one of our first warm sunny days in 2011 to Garber Park to attack invasive weeds.  Himalayan blackberry and Cape ivy, two of the most invasive weeds in Garber Park, had an especially bad day.

Lynn, Jon, and Bob at the end
of a successful day in the blackberry thickets.
 Said Lynn, "Enjoyed making headway clearing the
willow from that blackberry."

The Blackberry Bashers (as we’ve come to call them) put on their thick gloves and heavy clothes and headed out to Lower Harwood Bridge to cut back Himalayan blackberries around the willow trees.  It was interesting to find that these trees, which were deep inside the blackberry patch, had been pruned sometime in the past, clearly before the blackberries took over.

A large part of Garber is flat with
a good trail and a gentle walk in
from Rispin Lane.

Then there was the group that began removing Cape ivy near the Springs on the upper Loop Trail.  Five bags of Cape ivy were filled and hauled to the Evergreen Lane entrance. This crew also pulled some poison hemlock and forget-me-nots near the trail, which can be left on site since they won’t resprout.  This crew had the pleasure of working around a beautiful native Red Alder whose delicate catkins are just beginning to form.   Cape ivy is such a vigorous grower that the stewards will need to continually return to this site until it is finally eradicated.

Cheryl and Ann with their load
of cape ivy.    

 A third group continued preparing the area around Fireplace Plaza for our Restoration planting on Saturday, February 19.  While no new stone artifacts were discovered (see blog entry from Jan. 4) we did make progress in defining the perimeter of the plaza by creating a berm with the eucalyptus duff.

At the end of the day Cheryl commented that it was "a beautiful week-end to be out in nature - and helping it along."  We all agreed.





Next Stewardship dates:  Tuesday, February 1 from 10AM-Noon.  Activities:  Our main focus will be preparing our Restoration Site for planting, invasive weed removal, and trail maintenance.  Saturday,  February 19 - we hope to begin our Restoration Planting.  Details to follow. We hope you can join us.
 

Alnus Rubra (Common name, Red Alder)
You can find more beautiful pictures of
natives at Kay Loughman's website,
"Wildlife in theNorth Hills"
(under links to the right).

We were pleased to have Janet Gawthrop
from the California Native Plant Society
join us and give us insight into the
relationship of the invasives and
the natives.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

WENDY TOKUDA CROSSES THE WUI

As 2011 begins to take shape in Garber Park, we could not resist this brief detour from restoration ecology. Among the riches offered in BAY NATURE'S current tenth anniversary issue--Jan-Mar 2011--you will find the arguably eponymous article, "The Crazy Broom Lady of the Oakland Hills" by the lady herself, Wendy Tokuda introduced by Lech Naumovich' s wonderful portrait.
http://baynature.org/articles/jan-mar-2011
Among many journeys detailed in the article, Wendy Tokuda has recently undertaken the eradication of French broom from Redwood Park and most recently from Huckleberry Preserve. She recounts with a sense of increasing awareness the distance from the newsroom where we first met her to the recesses of the East Ridge redwood stands and the noisy, irreverant pecking of the pileated woodpecker. Importantly, she has come to understand the wildland side of the interface as "home". As she has removed the broom she has been able to observe the resurgence of the native flora, sometimes very unexpectedly. Wendy's story is altogether inspiring.

Garber Park is fortunate to have few areas that are threatened by French Broom, but those areas need persistent attention so that eradication of this relatively small population can occur. Wendy Tokuda's dedication to the task of broom removal in much larger theaters serves as proof positive that this can be accomplished and also points the way to the personal rewards that may ensue.

She is certainly an outstanding mentor for the Garber Park Stewards.
*WUI - Wildland/Urban Interface

Winter in Garber Park

Garber Park is beautiful in the Winter.  The Buckeyes and Maples are as beautiful without their leaves as they are in the Summer.  Enjoy the pictures below as we follow the Loop Trail on one of the first days of sunshine in Garber Park in 2011.

First Garber Park Workday of 2011

Although Tuesday morning was clear and cool, we warmed up quickly by raking 20+ years of Eucalyptus duff out of Fireplace Plaza.  We thought our main task was simply to clean up after the eucs, but we quickly discovered a puzzle.  First, we uncovered a cement faced stone bench clearly meant for seating by the fireplace.  Then we noticed a tipped-over stone and cement drinking fountain and a cistern with a Doric pediment at one end.  Then we noticed that the plaza itself was ringed by a stone wall, and finally we figured out that the entire hillside where the fireplace stands is crosscut by terraced rock walls.  At this point it appears that the rock walls have to do with an old trail that ascends from Claremont Ave. up to a junction with the Lower Loop Trail near the Plaza.  If that proves to be the case, we could consider improving the old trail and covering up the deer trails that meander too close to the adjacent houses on Evergreen Lane.

Meanwhile, Bob continued his assault on the Himalayan Blackberry thickets near the Lower Loop Bridge.  A project first begun on Creek to Bay Day, Bob has continued clearing uphill and daylighting the creek.  As we watched the creek meandering and bubbling down the hillside we became aware of several birds taking a drink from the creek, and flying in and out of the newly freed willows and trees.   Following up the creek towards the Upper Loop Trail it appears that two springs are the source of Harwood Creek, which is beginning to emerge as the centerpiece of a significant wetland. For the time being, we are calling this whole area “The Springs”. 

We walked back along the Lower Loop trail satisfied with another good day in Garber Park, and excited about continuing these projects at our

Next Stewardship Day:  Saturday, January 15, from 10AM-Noon.  We will meet, as usual, at the Evergreen Ln. entrance.  

Directions: From Alvarado Rd, take Slater Lane, then turn right on Evergreen Ln. The entrance is at the end of the street.  This is in easy walking distance from Alvarado Road. Directions to Garber Park can also be found at http://tinyurl.com/GarberPark.

Wear shoes with good traction and dress in layers for all weather. 

Questions: Email:  GarberParkStewards@gmail.com   

We hope you can join us on January 15.  

Garber Park-2010 & Beyond

On behalf of Garber Park we are sending along this seasonal greeting with many thanks for your contributions and support, and this summary of our first year’s activities in pursuit of the restoration and preservation of the natural wildland character of Garber Park’s thirteen acres.  In December, 2009, the Stewards started out with the clear idea that these were 13 acres worth working for.  Throughout 2010, we have discovered many new dimensions of Garber Park’s value.

One year ago, hardly anyone, including near neighbors, knew that Garber Park existed.  Even as they stood at the end of Evergreen Lane looking directly into it, or driving under the overarching maples and buckeyes on the south side of Claremont Ave. east of the hotel, most people did not recognize an Oakland Open Space park.  As task number one, the Garber Park Stewards have worked to uncover and encourage the Park’s natural identity as a wildland riparian remnant of the Claremont and Temescal Canyon watershed.  We have tried to understand (and survey) the Park’s boundaries, to create a clear entrance at Evergreen Lane where there is now a sign (Thanks, Adopt a Creek folks), to improve the one mile Loop Trail for safe and pleasurable public access, to clear decades of rubbish and fuel load near the Evergreen Ln. entrance in order to establish a native watershed restoration zone, and to initiate the survey and mapping of native resources as well as numerous, threatening invasives. 

The Stewards have also focused on all the wildfire issues that are inherent in East Bay upland living, with the recognition that even a shady riparian woodland can contain substantially hazardous conditions.  In keeping with the wisdom of the new earth science of restoration ecology, we know that fire safety and native restoration can and must proceed hand in hand.

Over the past year we have removed mountains of trash and weeds; we have sunlighted the creeks by removing the Himalayan blackberry thickets; we have revitalized the long term job of French broom, Spurge, and Cape ivy removal; and recently, after nine months of planning and consultation, we have accomplished the removal from the Evergreen Lane entrance of three of the Park’s 17 fire prone 120-foot eucalyptus trees. These trees rained bark and leaves year round onto the hillside and into the old Fireplace Plaza causing a heightened threat of combustion in the dry season. In recognition of the the threat these eucalyptus trees represented, the Oakland Public Works Tree Services Division said in its letter of permission:  Thank you for volunteering to remove these eucalyptus trees from Garber Park, at the end of Evergreen Lane, to improve fire safety in your area and benefit the more desirable native trees growing on the property. 

The removal of the eucalyptus trees was the final step in preparing the Evergreen Lane entrance hillside for restoration, which we hope to begin in February.  Our twice a month stewardship sessions will resume on Tuesday, Jan. 4.  Our first focus will be to continue preparations for February plantings at our Restoration Site.  Other near-term goals for 2011 include our ongoing removal of invasive species, especially French broom, Cape ivy, Himalayan blackberry, and spurge.  We are working with the City of Oakland Wildfire Prevention Assessment District (WPAD) to secure a project for Garber Park that will reduce the risk in the fire vulnerable areas while protecting native plant restoration, a project that will maintain lower fuels and a safer park.  

We invite your support and participation.

See you soon,

The Garber Park Stewards