Walking Waterhoods: Garber Park -- Temescal Creek Watershed

Garber Park was originally part of Judge John Garber's backyard. Judge Garber moved to San Francisco in 1857 and because an famous attorney and jurist. For a time he was a judge on the Nevada Supreme Court, but he returned to California and... Read more

Often it is the work of private citizens that keeps a wide variety of Oakland Parks in working order, as park funding often gets diverted elsewhere in the city budget. Enter Garber Park Stewards in 2010. With the important goals of reducing... Read more

Why do you think this dense patch of ferms and trilliums exists among the invase ivies? This is the work of Garber Park Stewards who have identified areas of fern diversity and restored them by removing invasives and using tranplant techniq... Read more

Although this historic fireplace has been well known for many decades, only in 2011 was the extensive stone patio uncovered during a restoration workday. What you see today was built by area Boy Scouts in the 1920's for meetings and camping... Read more

Temescal Creek in Garber Park is directly impacted by stormwater produced in the Claremont Hills neighborhood. What does that mean? Stormwater is simply rainwater that is fairly clean hitting a hard surface, such as pavement in sidewalks an... Read more

As you stand on the edge of the switchback, look towards the interior of the park. The oaks create dense shade allowing a rich understory of sword ferns on the forest floor. This represens a healthy forest where invasive plants are limited... Read more

Aesculus californica, commonly known as the California buckeye or California horse-chestnut, is a small tree native to California and southern Oregon. You will usually see their branches coated with mosses and lichens. Their nuts produce ... Read more

This area of the buckeye grove is covered with lichens, which are said to cover 6-7% of all the trees and rock on Earth. There are thousands of variety of lichens, but they are composite organisms — that is, they are actually communities ... Read more

Toxicodendendron diversilobum is known as Pacific poison oak or Western poison oak, even though it isn't closely related to the trees. It's leaves and stems produce an oil called urushiol, which is an allergen to 80% of people and causes th... Read more

What are the mechanisms that actually create creeks and rivers? Generally, whether the initial flow is from a spring or from rainwater pouring down the hill, a creek grows as it moves downhill. As you walk through this park, you'll notice m... Read more

How adorable! The Oak Titmouse (Baeolophus inornatus) is a small gray-brown bird that dwells along the coast of California down into Mexico. It has a crest that can be raised or lowered. Until 1996, all titmice were considered the same spec... Read more

The benches throughout this park are made from trees and materials in the park itself. There's no reason to import new material when plentty exists where you are!

What looks different about this area? Is it sunnier, wetter, or cooler than the previous section of the trail? This area is dominated by horsetail a plant that looks like a bottlebrush. This vascular plant reproduces by spores rather than s... Read more

Oregon ash reaches the edge of its North American coastal distribution on the cool slopes and creeks of the Bay Area. The leaves of this tree are described as pinnately compound. Can you find all the seedlings around? What about the parent ... Read more

Often we don't see the species such as mammals while we're out in our yards or hiking. So how can we know there? We often "see" other species by what they have built or left behond. In this case, rather than discovering prints in wet mud, ... Read more

Pineapple Sage is a variety of Saliva elegans, a shrub native to Mexico, and is so named because when it flowers it smells like pineapple! If you're fortunate enough to be walking through here in the autumn, keep a lookout for their bright ... Read more

Umbellularia californica is a tree that goes by many names: Oregon myrtle, headache tree, balm of heaven, sō-ē’-bä (Concow tribe) and California bay laurel. Though its fruit, nuts, and leaves have been used as medicine, food, and for p... Read more

You now stand amoung 100-200 year old coast live oaks. Notice how quiet is it here, how little sound travels from urban spaces to this location. Oaks are well known to serve as sound barriers. Although this grove may not currently harbor S... Read more

As you exit the grove, you may hear a surprising sound: water flowing. A small but important perennial creek wanders throuh Garver, crossing the trainl at a location known as Bob's place. This is the site of a effort to restore native veget... Read more

Notice the blackened scars on the oak tree. These serve as an important reminder of the past and the role of fire even in the wettest ecosystems. Fire is an important ecological process, but is often in conflict with human communities. ...

“At the time a tree dies, it has only partially fulfilled its potential ecological function,” writes Dr. Jerry Franklin, a leading forest ecologist from the University of Washington. Part of the biodiversity crisis faced globally is roo... Read more

The California Towhee looks for food by dragging its feet through leaves and twigs with a distinctive two-legged backward hop.

There are so many things to love about the Big Leaf Maples (Acer macrophyllum) in Garber Park, an original inhabitant of this canyon. They are the tallest maple reaching a towering 100' and the leaves can be 12" around. This maple is "monoe... Read more