August workday at the Panhandle

It was a cold Saturday morning, and as we walked through the Panhandle we could hear heavy drops of condensed fog falling from the tall trees. But there was work to do! A large eucalyptus branch had fallen near the south path. In the mound full of perennials, Bermuda Grass was sending its ropy underground shoots through and around our plantings. Weedy annual grasses had infiltrated the rain garden. Thousands of leaves and passels of bark strips lay scattered across the meadows. And the stumps of dead trees stuck up from the turf, like unfinished business. Was there any way for us to accomplish all of the work? Fortunately, our regular volunteers were in attendance, and our numbers were bolstered by the Bridgemen, a group for gay, bi and trans men who get together and give back to the community in service projects. 

By the end of the workday, the weather was still damp and chilly, but the group had persevered through the challenging project. The tally was seven tree stumps removed. The cart was full of the stubs of roots and the pickup truck had a full load of weeds and leaves. The traces of our work removing the stumps showed in several areas with a topping of fresh soil. With the work done by the end of the morning, the Panhandle was looking great, and was more ready for tree plantings that are anticipated this fall.

Happy Valentines from the Panhandle

A heavy storm can set back your plans, and the wind and rain storms last Friday and Sunday have meant a lot of clean up time for park workers. It's hard to overstate the amount of leaf, fruit, bark and twigs that fall from the big old trees in the park. And that not to mention the entire trees that were knocked over. The staging area for debris near the basketball courts is almost full!

At the community workday this morning, we lent a hand in the area on both sides of Central Ave, starting in the area where an elm tree fell last week. Fortunately, we didn't need to remove everything offsite, because you can use the leaf and bark to mulch around the big trees. It was still a lot of work for a small crew to move that much stuff. Now that the meadow is cleared of eucalyptus litter, crews during the coming week can spread compost fines in the meadow, replenishing the soil and helping resprout grass.

Then, this afternoon at about 4:45, I came upon another tree that had fallen directly across the bike path. It appears to be a pittosporum. Some picnickers nearby told me that it had just happened about a half hour before and that someone had nearly been hit but escaped without any injury. 

#vscocam @SF311 tree fell over on Panhandle bike path near Cole Street. About 40 minutes ago. pic.twitter.com/QiispaBh9j
— Fix Masonic (@Fix_Masonic) February 15, 2015

Park workers busy during break in the storm

Thank you Guillermo for clearing our pathways this morning during the break in the storm!

Yesterday's Pineapple Express storm brought San Francisco a couple inches of rain and a lot of wind, bringing down a mess of branches out of the mature trees in the Panhandle. Getting the branches off the paths helps everyone navigate more safely, a nice benefit given today's mild weather.

The winds also split an old elm tree located near Central Ave on the Oak Street side. The limbs have already been cut and removed, but removing the trunk will probably require another crew.

Split in the tree, tagged #259

Another view of the split tree

Park entrances at Oak & Ashbury: one rebuilt and one still in progress

Rainstorms fell a Monterey Pine near Central

A tree toppled a few days ago - this morning it still remained just off the bike path on the north side, at the intersection with Central Ave. Monterey Pine are increasingly scarce in the park. The larger pine tree (shown in the picture) is still standing directly across the path, but shows some signs of stress, such as losing needles and producing large number of cones.

THANKS for great turnout to Saturday's Panhandle Workday

The turnout at our recent Panhandle workday was tremendous! Previous volunteers returned for another morning working in the park...and brought friends with them! Thanks everyone for making the morning such a success and for helping Guillermo and me as we worked to get the right tools to the right place. Enjoy the slideshow below, and mark your calendars for our upcoming workdays on the Second Saturday.

Two trees down near Central

This pittosporum tree, just west of Central  and south of the south path, was horizontal yesterday. It appeared that, in falling, it also pushed over another pittosporum next to it. 

At least I believe they were both pittosporum. The tree that initially fell, had the red flowers (top) of a Karo (pittosporum crassifolium) while the tree that got knocked over (bottom) had closed buds. The Panhandle has a lot of pittosporum trees including the concentrated grove located just east of here, between Central and Lyon.  

Whatever species, they make for quite a lot of tree to remove from the park. Other trees nearby include three nice, if somewhat stunted, hawthornes. There are also several large eucalyptus and, a little farther west, the cluster of olive trees.   

April's community workday in the Panhandle

How does it feel working in the sun? 

Thanks to more than 25 people who showed up to help out on Saturday for our April community workday! Our focus turned back to the playground, where we weeded some of the ornamental beds, raked leaves out of the sand, and added a few new perennials to the empty spots near the northeast border.   

Removing wheelbarrows full of leaves from the playground

Watering some new plants

 During the second half of the workday, we moved west and spread two truckloads of compost fines around redwoods and other trees near Fell and Cole. 

Four wheelbarrows in action at once

We also took time to discuss the city's plans to remove four trees and prune several others to address structural and safety issues. After that discussion it was eerie to return to the park later in the day and notice a forty-foot long branch that had fallen from a eucalyptus tree just across the path from the bathrooms. The limb had either fallen conveniently just off of the path behind a bench - or perhaps had been removed by some helpful folks who happened to encounter it on their Saturday afternoon visit to the park.  

The Stone Pine near Stanyan

Google Street View shows you what was recently there

Earlier this week I found the stump and a few leftover branches of a tree in the Panhandle, near Oak Street just east of Stanyan. Google Street view (screen grab above) shows that this was an Italian Stone Pine (pinus pinea) a tree originating in the Mediterranean region.

I count 21 rings

The form of a typical juvenile Stone Pine is described as a "bushy globe" and this tree fit that description. The rings in the stump indicated that it wasn't very old. Some older Stone Pines are found at other parks in San Francisco (the best known being at Washington Square Park), but overall, Stone Pines are not that common in San Francisco, and I believe this one was the only Stone Pine in the Panhandle. McClintock's 1964 booklet does not list any Stone Pines in the Panhandle. The loss of this tree suggests some interesting questions: Should we consider replanting a Stone Pine, given that it's relatively uncommon and has some precedent in the Panhandle? Or would it be better to look farther back in our history and put a higher priority on planting trees that were present but are no longer in the Panhandle?

April workday: Beautiful day in the park

A big group of volunteers enjoyed this morning's workday under sunny skies. After getting an orientation to the day's work and checking out examples of one of the park's weeds, rumex crispus, we organized into two groups. While some folks began a clean up of the children's playground, the bigger part of the group walked east to a worksite near Baker Street. We passed by the pittosporum crassifolium that toppled over during the high winds this week. It was sad to see the end of this old tree, but fortunately there are several other Karos nearby in the park.

We started out by filling wheelbarrows, and then spread them around the young cherry trees near Baker Street.

The soil also went around the big redwoods on the north side of the park. 

Closer to Lyon Street @ Fell, the enormous eucalyptus trees got a layer of mulch. 

Thanks to all of our volunteers, and especially to the seventh grade (and some other students) from SFDS! 

Final verdict for the Horse Chestnut

There was no saving the common horse chestnut that split in half two weeks ago. The remaining half was removed, and then it was cut down to the stump. 

Looking on the bright side, the loss of the old tree gives plenty of growing room for another Aesculus growing close by. With the red blooms it's clearly a Red Horse Chestnut, a species that's becoming increasingly popular as a street tree in San Francisco, on Waller, Dolores, and elsewhere. 

Big tree splits in half

The old horse-chestnut that dominated the center lawn of the Panhandle Park near Cole split in half on Friday afternoon. The falling branch reportedly came close to knocking out a family walking nearby.

Seen from the north, the damage may not look so drastic, but from the side view (below), it's clear that the tree is nearly destroyed. I enjoyed its showy white flowers each spring and hope that it can be saved. 

The big leaves of the tree were interesting to see during their vernation in March.

Tree vs. Tree near Oak/Lyon

Rec & Park cleans up the aftermath

Passing through the Panhandle Tuesday morning, I found a Rec and Park crew removing a fallen tree near Lyon and Oak. A large branch from a eucalyptus tree was on the ground, and I also saw the stump of a different tree - what looked like an elm.

Where the branch dropped from

The crew confirmed that a branch from a eucalyptus had fallen and crushed an old elm tree.

paper for scale - not a young tree

The crew said they had noticed the fallen tree Monday afternoon at about 1:30 p.m., which was another rainy day (0.06 of an inch). The falling branch had also damaged the small, young elm nearby, but it survived. Fortunately there are three other, mature elms in that vicinity of the Panhandle.

Seen from a distance, the eucalyptus that dropped a limb is HUGE. Many of the large trees in the Panhandle are over a hundred years old. 

One less eucalyptus

Until this morning, I had overlooked the loss of another Panhandle Park tree - this large old eucalyptus, just off the south path near Lyon St @ Oak. I'm told that it fell about a week ago. A big thank you to everyone who worked on removal - you left the area looking good!

After the rainfall of this past week, the ground in the Panhandle is really saturated. It's affecting the turf, the paths, and obviously, our trees. With the thin layer of topsoil and shallow roots, trees in the panhandle are vulnerable to being toppled during a windy storm, especially this time of year. The good news behind this, though, is that snowpack in the Northern Sierra is 121% of normal, and the U.S. Interior department yesterday indicated that California's three-year drought is over. Possibly California is getting enough rain to begin reviving the salmon in the Sacramento river? 

The Panhandle Park still has many - at least a dozen - large, mature eucalyptus trees. They're not my favorite tree, but you've got to admit that their trunks have a certain human-like pulchritude.

We lost a tree to today's storm

Fell St east of Shrader


A good-sized tree came down in the Panhandle, apparently a result of today's fast-moving rainstorm. Does anybody know what kind of tree this is? 
Update: I've referred to a copy of Trees of the Panhandle, and believe I've identified this as a prunus lusitanica, a.k.a. Portugal laurel.