Blogs
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.
“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.”
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Conservancy is pleased to announce the completion of the Mid-Canyon and Stonewall Road fuels reduction projects, the final phases of our 2005-2006 fire-safety program in the Claremont Canyon Preserve. The program grew out of a consensus among neighbors, government agencies, and land-holders, who agree that we need to gain some control of the invasive eucalyptus, acacia, and pines that increasingly encroach upon the roads, homes, and wild habitat of the East Bay hills.
In February of 2006, we mailed surveys to 385 members and former members of the Claremont Canyon Conservancy. One hundred and thirty, or 34%, responded. Most of the respondents (92%) report close contact with Claremont Canyon by hiking in, driving through, or just viewing the landscape, presumably from their homes (over half). A few hearty souls (5%) report hiking the canyon daily and many more (49%) do so once a month or more. About a quarter drive through every day.
In January, noted Bay Area mycologist Robert Mackler led one of his popular fungal forays into the moist oak forests of Garber Park. A past president of the Mycological Society of San Francisco, Bob Mackler has been explaining the mysteries of mushrooms to since the 1970’s. Bounding through the wintery woods in his big boots and mushroom-dyed cap, he resembled a real-life Tom Bombadil. We were only a few paces into the park before we discovered our first fungus— a log festooned with Tukeytails (Trametes versicolor).
The Conservancy’s dream of replacing those fire-dangerous eucalyptus trees in upper Claremont Canyon took a step forward recently when volunteers planted some 1,100 redwood seedlings in areas where UC has removed eucalyptus during the last couple of years. The newly planted, year-old seedlings are still so small that they’re hard to spot, but now that the eucs are gone, it is easy to see the 60- and 80-foot-tall redwoods that the Piedmont Rotary Club planted in the upper canyon thirty years ago.
At first, I wondered if my husband had a secret admirer. I could hear a tapping at the window of his study, like someone wanting to get in. But when I went to investigate, no one was there. Then again— tap, tap, tap— and I saw him, a chubby, brown bird earnestly pecking and flapping at his own reflection.
When we formed our organization two and a half years ago, Claremont Canyon was being overlooked and ignored. Little had been done by the major stakeholders to control the spread of French broom, poison hemlock, yellow starthistle and the other invasive exotics. Damaged eucalyptus trees were re-sprouting. Roadsides were minimally managed and trails on parkland were virtually ignored. All this has changed.
In December 1972, a prolonged cold snap hit the San Francisco Bay Area killing thousands of eucalyptus trees in upper Claremont Canyon. The eucs were still standing, but they looked terrible–stark and dry and colorless like so much kindling waiting for a spark. With the wildfire of 1970 still painfully fresh in everyone’s memory, UC Chancellor Albert Bowker decided to take bold action. He had all the eucalyptus trees cut down and hauled away. Logging crews used chainsaws, trucks, bulldozers, and other heavy equipment to do the job.
Afterward, the upper canyon looked like a war zone. To minimize erosion, the area was seeded from the air. But it still looked terrible, so the Piedmont Rotary Club came forward with a reforestation plan. They persuaded UC planners to let them plant some 550 Monterey pines and coast redwood seedlings. The actual planting was done on a Sunday morning in April 1975. The seedlings were small, about 12 inches high in one-gallon containers, but most of them survived.
On the other hand, the root systems of the eucalyptus trees were not dead. Soon almost all of the stumps began to sprout, sending up four or five or six new stems to replace those that had been frozen and cut down. As a result, the upper canyon turned back into a forest of fast-growing, fire-hazardous, eucalyptus trees, some of them now 12 to 18 inches in diameter (dbh) and as much as 80 feet tall.
Recently, with support and encouragement from the Conservancy, UC began to cut down the re-sprouted eucalyptus trees in the upper canyon. Mature oaks, laurels, elderberrys and other trees and shrubs are being left alone. Like the pines and redwoods that were planted in 1975 they are now enjoying the sunlight and moisture that were being monopolized by the eucs. So far, about 3,000 eucalyptus stems have been cut down and the program is scheduled to continue.
The Monterey pines, perhaps 100 of them, have reached middle age and look a bit dry; they’re not in their favorite near-ocean environment. On the other hand, more than 200 redwoods have also survived. In fact, most of them are healthy and full of youthful enthusiasm, just beginning to prosper and grow rapidly. Many are 10 to 20 feet tall with main stems that are 10 or 12 inches in diameter. Quite a few are as much as 60 feet tall and growing taller by four to six feet per year. A few have trunks that are over seven feet in circumference (28 or 29 inches dbh).
The Conservancy’s plan is to continue what the Rotary Club started 30 years ago–replacing the old, very dangerous eucalyptus forest with a cool, moist, relatively fire-safe and beautiful forest of redwoods, oaks, laurels, and other native trees and shrubs. The Conservancy has a supply of seeds gleaned from redwoods native to the East Bay Hills that will be used to continue and extend the reforestation program that was started in 1975. It looks to be a lovely and enduring accomplishment that we will all be able to enjoy and be proud of, and proudly leave to future generations.
We begin with two assumptions. First, that fire safety and preservation of the environment are everyone’s responsibility, public and private landowner alike. And second, that only through partnership and coordinated effort can we shape these responsibilities into wise and well-planned action. Accordingly, we have formed good working relationships with many agencies and individuals, each of whom holds an important piece of the overall puzzle.
