October Workday wrap-up

My pictures don't do  justice to the beautiful weather or to the amazing spirits of all the volunteers who came out for our workday on Saturday in the Panhandle.

Clearing leaves from the path and the meadow

We were joined by an awesome group of families from the San Francisco Day School, who joined the main group of volunteers on a job that at first appeared daunting and thankless - raking up eucalyptus leaves in a big area between Clayton and Cole Street on both sides of the north path. But with a lot of people getting to work, and with help from RPD, raking leaves in the sunshine actually turned out to be pretty fun. With a huge amount of leaf litter removed, the grass is going to have a much better chance to resprout with the coming fall rains.

The area we were working in was adjacent to a cluster of redwoods on the north side of the park, and a crew from RPD arrived to work with Charlie (pictured above) on clearing some burl growth as well as clipping back English Elm suckers coming up from the ground. During break we took a closer look at the redwoods and began learning more about them and thinking about a biodiversity project that we hope to bring to the multiple redwood clusters found in the Panhandle.  

In the shade of the redwoods on a sunny fall morning

Meanwhile, Nancy and Michael traveled down to the east end to tackle a special project: clipping back the large bush from the north path. This bush grows quickly, and can reduce visibility for people traveling on the path. Safety on the path is an ongoing concern, and the commencement of cross-town, park-to-park bike rentals is bound to bring even more people riding bikes in the Panhandle. Meanwhile the city is moving forward with approval of a separated bike way along JFK Drive, just west of the Panhandle bike path, so we can expect cycling to continue to increase in the coming year.