CNPS volunteers (and work crews, pictured) led by Stephen Rosenthal have been working since 2011 to restore the City of San Jose’s Alum Rock Park, the state’s oldest municipal park. They started in the overlook area at Inspiration Point, which features grassland with Ithuriel’s spear, fiesta flower, blue-eyed grass, soap lily, yarrow, and blue dicks, as well as a woodland with coast live, oak, valley oak, and blue oak. After a few years, they have significantly reduced the level of yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis), Italian thistle (Carduus pycnocephalus), and milk thistle (Silybum marianum).
They next moved to “Fire Meadow”, where wildfire had recently opened the canopy. They planted 20 trees, including hollyleaf cherry, elderberry, and California buckeye within cages to protect them from deer browsing (trees donated by Central Coast Wilds). They also propagated hundreds of native plants from seed gathered in the park. On sites that are relatively inaccessible from roads, weeds like poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) and black mustard (Brassica nigra) are piled on site.
In 2020, Steve trained his sights on removing numerous Cape-ivy (Delairea odorata) infestations from Penitencia Creek, which flows out of Alum Rock Park and into Coyote Creek, emptying into the southern end of San Francisco Bay. By removing these incipient populations, volunteers are keeping the riparian weed from spreading further in the watershed.
The CNPS Santa Clara Valley Chapter maintains an excellent archive of video recordings on YouTube, including talks from Northern California Botanists’ conferences and CNPS Conservation conferences, as well as presentations on the chapter itself.
