A DOZEN CONSERVANCY MEMBERS AND FRIENDS visited the Pacifica Foundation site of the KPFA Radio Towers overlooking Gwin and Claremont Canyons, with Jake Sigg, long-time advocate of native plant restoration in the Bay Area and author of the widely read “Nature News from Jake Sigg.” Jake helped us identify native plants and provided insights on the landscape, a naturally rough and exposed knoll overlooking much of the bay area to the west and Mount Diablo and the inner valley to the east.
President's message, by Barry Pilger
AS SUMMER TURNS TO FALL Claremont Canyon can take on a special beauty after our recent relatively wet spring and mild summer. A drive up Claremont Avenue, or better yet a walk onto a canyon trail, whether through Garber Park, from Four Corners to the chert, or a more ambitious hike from the Stonewall trailhead to Grizzly Peak Boulevard and back, is just what one needs to be reminded of the natural beauty that is right in our backyard.
Wildfire hazard reduction and resource management plan-an update, by Pat O'Brien
ON APRIL 20, 2010 THE PARK DISTRICT Board of Directors unanimously approved the Park District’s Wildfire Hazard Reduction and Resource Management Plan and its accompanying EIR. The approval followed six years of hard work by staff, consultants, natural resource specialists, planners, cooperating agencies, and the public, and will pave the way for important fire hazard reduction work to begin in Claremont Canyon and several other East Bay Hills regional parks.
Making Claremont Canyon fire-safe, working with UC
Over the last nine years, the Conservancy has developed a strong working relationship with the University of California and its restoration and fire safety projects in Claremont Canyon. Much of our shared concern has focused on the dense groves of eucalyptus on U.C. land in the upper portion of the Canyon.
Weedworkers Toolbelt, by Mary Millman
"Over the years I’ve developed a way to incorporate most of the items I need in the field into a light, compact, easily carried system that provides quick access to everything without compromising my mobility, and still leaves both hands free. And, I don’t forget anything—It’s all right there!” Items on Ken’s belt from left to right are: anvil loppers in cordless drill holder, accessory pouch for camera, GPS, first aid, LED flashlight, etc., folding saw, small spray bottle, anvil pruners, and small monocular."
Found: 1895 Alameda-Costra county boundary marker, by Mary Millman
SOMETIMES IMPORTANT THINGS end up in unexpected places. In 1895 several 400-pound cast iron boundary markers were placed along the ridgetop boundary between Alameda County and Contra Costa County. One was positioned right at the top of Claremont Canyon, close to what we know as “Four Corners,” the intersection of Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Claremont Avenue/Fish Ranch Road.
Goat grazing in the East Bay Hills, by Martin Holden
Twentieth century canyon dwellers, by Mary Millman
ALTHOUGH WE ARE NOW IN THE MIDST of a comprehensive project to collect an audio history of Claremont Canyon, the beginnings sprang from a casual curiosity about the early days in the canyon. Our board member, Tamia Marg, who spent her childhood there remembered “Tappy” Marron, whose family built the house that the Park District now occupies at the end of Gelston Road.
French broom-A tenacious invader, by Mary Millman and Tamia Marg
A brief history of wildfire in Claremont Canyon
IN THE BEGINNING: Throughout the latter part of the 1800s, Claremont Canyon, like much of the East Bay Hills, was utilized primarily for cattle grazing and dairy farming. The landscape was mostly grassland, a likely mixture of native bunch grasses and exotic annual grasses with a scattering of native shrubs and trees.
Major new park district fuel reduction work in mid-canyon, by Bill McClung
BACK IN THE 1970S, the Conservancy’s secretary and newsletter editor, Marilyn Goldhaber, and her husband Nat lived on Park District land in a small farm house up a driveway about .2 miles above Gelston Road. They raised a few goats, which occasionally got loose onto Claremont Avenue, and generally took care of the land.
Members tell us what they think, by Marilyn Goldhaber
TWO YEARS AGO, the Conservancy conducted a survey by mail1318 to 385 members for whom we had good mail1318ing addresses. One hundred and thirty, or 34%, responded at that time, and we reported the results in our Spring 2006 newsletter.
Since then, another 98 members joined the Conservancy and were given the opportunity to respond as they joined. Forty-one responded. Below we update our previous findings to report how the combined 171 members felt about Conservancy projects and goals.
An open letter to Conservancy members and friends from the Board of Directors
“The Claremont Canyon Conservancy is dedicated to the preservation and restoration of Claremont Canyon’s natural landscape and to the promotion of fire safety throughout the canyon and in adjacent residential neighborhoods. The Conservancy works closely with public and private property owners and various government agencies to ensure the best possible stewardship of the canyon as a whole.”
Overview of work in the Canyon, by Marilyn Goldhaber, Joe Engbeck and Bill McClung
The Conservancy has worked closely with and supported the four major public landowners — East Bay Municipal Utility District, University of California, East Bay Regional Park District, and the City of Oakland — both to identify hazards and to seek programs of vegetation management that will reduce the chances of such disasters in the future. All agencies have acknowledged the hazards and responded with substantial programs, some supported by grants from FEMA.
Wild life in the North Hills - the website, by Kay Loughman
A year or two ago I was greatly influenced by a couple of books (“Bowling Alone” and “Better Together”) by a Harvard scholar named Robert D. Putnam. He makes the case that decreasing involvement in community life is bad for individuals and ultimately bad for the world—a gross oversimplification on my part. But, as one who tends to sit at the computer by myself rather than do anything in the community, I knew Putnam’s message was aimed at people like me
A buffer zone in Claremont Canyon as a cultural landscape, a personal perspective, by Bill McClung
For many years I have believed we need a substantial fuel-reduction zone– similar in scale to the Tilden Fuelbreak at the edge of North Berkeley–in the complex two miles of wildland-urban intermix in Claremont Canyon. This idea runs up against practical, aesthetic, jurisdictional, and inertial challenges that may be overcome if we can begin to think of such a buffer zone as a cultural landscape.
In August, the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association hosted a series of walks and talks concentrating on Strawberry Canyon as a cultural landscape. Walks—or rambles as they called them—occurred on Panoramic Hill, at the Botanical Garden, and along the Upper Jordan Trail, which connects to the Ridge Trail above Claremont and Strawberry Canyons.
Revisiting Measure CC three years and counting, by Mary Millman
Allocations of funds for Claremont Canyon are listed in three line items of the Measure CC budget: $418,060 for completion of the trail system; $120,000 for research for Whipsnake habitat enhancement; and for Sibley and Claremont Canyon combined, $1,175,000 for vegetation management and fuels reduction. The precise allocation of these sums has yet to be determined.
Stalking the wild broom, by Tamia Marg
There is something deeply satisfying about pulling that solitary broom bobbing with yellow flowers that would have spawned a zillion broom seedlings if you hadn’t been there to pull it. Not only are you eliminating the prolific parents of future generations but you are opening up space in the continuum of habitat for a more native balance to move in. We are not talking here about the removal of those forests of broom that have become entrenched on hillsides all around the East Bay Hills. Those require armies of people with all sorts of weapons and multiple strategies. This venture is the hunt for the sentinels—those lone riders that venture out into undisturbed territory, quiet invaders bringing devastation to the modest areas of native diversity left near our urban jungles. As these bad guys forge ahead, their progeny will spread into the densest native thickets, skewing the balance of habitat for the local denizens. The only things that stop them are deep shade, wetlands—or weed warriors.
Taking out the eucs, by Marilyn Goldhaber
Over 9,000 eucalyptus trees have been removed from Claremont Canyon since 2001 with thousands more due to come down in the next 2-4 years. Careful monitoring and follow-up of the logged areas this time around should assure that resprouts and new seedlings will not overwhelm the land, force out the native flora and fauna, and present an unacceptable wildfire hazard to the canyon and nearby homes.
Some people undoubtedly will miss the tall trees which have held their place in the canyon for nearly a century. Were they less flammable by nature and less aggressive in their growth, wildland managers might be able to deal with them differently. But such was not the case for Eucalyptus globulus, or blue gum, a species imported from Australia for commercial reasons over a hundred years ago.
Touring the urban-wildland interface with Oakland Deputy Fire Chief James Edwards, by Bill McClung
For about two miles along the southern and western edges of Claremont Canyon, nearly a thousand houses and private properties directly face about a hundred acres of wildlands. The management of these undeveloped lands owned by the Regional Park District, City of Oakland, and private landowners could determine whether firefighters can successfully keep future wildland fires from engulfing whole neighborhoods in minutes.
