Corona Heights Description
Corona Heights is one of the oldest of the habitat restoration projects. Randall Museum staff and local neighborhood activists began removing weeds from the summit grasslands back in the early 1990s. Corona Heights became an official GLS activity of the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club shortly thereafter. Since 1999, the project has been led by the Natural Areas Program.
Initially the principal weed targets were large invasives — radish, broom, and fennel. After years of regular removal, these pests are largely under control, and smaller, more difficult-to-handle weeds are our primary concern — plantain, sheep sorrel, oxalis, and ehrharta grass.
Over the years, volunteers planted many native grasses and forbs, but the survival rates were feeble at best. The main problem turned out to be trampling and digging by the numerous off-leash dogs that owners allow to roam (illegally by the way) around the summit. These dogs go after the many voles and gophers that live in the grasslands, and there go the new plants. However, during the past four years we’ve begun to place short temporary fences around new plantings, and survival has been well over 50% now.
Corona Heights currently has 66 volunteers who have subscribed to our regular email newsletters and work at this site. They have posted 53 photos and 15 posts to their blog.
Regular Workparty Schedule
- Last Saturday of each month from 10:00 to 12:00
Regular Meeting Location
- Randall Museum -- [Map and Details]
Additional Information
Blog Posts
Here are blog posts about the Corona Heights project — presented 2 at a time in reverse chronological order. Browse to earlier or later posts via the pagination controls below.
April 2008
Sun, 27 Apr 2008, 8:28am, Tinman said:
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March and April have been unusually dry this year, so we watered the new plants in the lower planting area, then headed up the hill on a broom search-and-destroy mission. Due to our constant vigilance, the broom is largely controlled except where it is protected within the poison oak stands, which only a few of us are immune enough to enter. Here we’re sweeping the broom in the amazing area just over the fence on the south slope:
After a couple hours of righteous weed-pulling, we headed on on a wildflower walk led by Tom, here crouching to show a particular feature of one of the flowers. Note the yarrow and mules ears around us:
Here’s a closer look at the mules ears, spectacular right now:
Lupine, widespread on the hill right now:
Blue-eyed grass:
And california poppies:
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March 2008
Sat, 29 Mar 2008, 6:19pm, Tinman said:
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This winter’s plentiful rains did wonders for our plantings, particularly in the lower plot—but they also benefited the annual grasses. We spent the majority of the time trimming the thigh-high grasses from around the plantings to expose them to much-needed sunlight.
This view toward the north shows the lower planting on the left and the rest of the slope on the right. Tom and Jon weed-whacked the middle swath just outside the fence, while inside the fence we used small hand scythes. Note how remarkably the various shrubs have grown.
Lots of stuff is blooming, once the grasses are removed to expose it. Here you see mimulus (sticky monkey flower) and phacelia:
Another surprise was how well the annual lupine are doing. We seeded these plants a couple of years ago and hadn’t noticed many last year. But conditions must be favorable, as there are many of these lovely purple-and-white flowers about:
Once we’d taken care of the planted plot, we headed out into the radish to help out various treasures we find there—native plants that are surviving on their own despite the grass:
One such plant is suncups (Camissonia ovata) which we haven’t planted but which is doing well once it’s given a chance:
The radish are big and aggressive, so we have to be correspondingly tough on ‘em. Here’s Rosie showing how to intimidate a radish into submission:
This slope is truly doing great compared to the complete radish weed patch it was just a couple of years ago. Next season we’ll expand the fenced area to recover more of the slope.
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