California Invasive Species Action Week for June Second Saturday

Posted on by friendsofthewildernesspark

This year Saturday, June 7 – Sunday, June 15 was California Invasive Species Action Week, a statewide, week-long event created to increase public awareness of invasive species in our state and to promote public participation year round in invasive species management.

For our June 14 Second Saturday event, we removed invasive mustard – including Short-pod Mustard (Hirschfeldia incana), Mediterranean Cabbage (Brassica fruticulosa), Oriental Mustard (Sisymbrium orientale), and Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale) – and Italian Thistles (Carduus pycnocephalus) from areas near the Park entrance that are being revegetated with native plants.

Some volunteers also did our usual trash pickup and greeted visitors at our booth.

Here are some photos of volunteers at work:

Weed workers getting ready.
Charlie with a bag of thistles.
Richard removing mustard along the fence.
Mustard pulling in progress.
Jessica pulling mustard
Trash collectors Noelle and Tracy with our CISAW display
Look at that! Eleven huge bags of mustard and thistles!

And a little “Before” and “After”:

Area by the storage shed before mustard was cleared.
Area by the storage shed after mustard was cleared.
Thistles under the oak tree by the entrance.
Under the oak tree after thistles were removed.

2025 City Nature Challenge CHWP BioBlitz results

Posted on by friendsofthewildernesspark

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park BioBlitz this year! Unfortunately, Saturday, whihc would normally be our biggest day, was rained out, but nonetheless during the BioBlitz…

  • 92 observations were made
  • 73 different species were observed
  • 12 observers participated (2 were new iNaturalist users)
  • 5 new species (3 plants and 2 insects) and one new insect family were added to the Biota of the CHWP project (this number might grow or shrink with new IDs)

Here are just a few of the special “first finds” made in the park during the 2025 CNC BioBlitz:

Graceful Bedstraw (Galium porrigens)


Photo by @carolblaney

One of these was Graceful Bedstraw (Galium porrigens), which was most recently documented in 1971. Galium species are called “Bedstraw” because their fine hook-like hairs that cling to each other so the plants don’t mat down easily when used as a mattress.

Menzies’ Baby Blue Eyes (Nemophila menziesii)


Photo by @nvhamlett

This charming plant is frequently included native wildflower mixes. It was last documented in the CHWP in 1963.

Pacific Sanicle (Sanicula crassicaulis)


Photo by @nvhamlett

Pacific Sanicle had never previously been documented in the CHWP. The species name, Sanicula, is the dimnutive of the Latin sanare, “to heal”, and native peoples did use this plant for medicinal purposes, including using a poultice of the leaves to treat rattlesnake bites and other wounds. The alternative common name “Snakeroot” probably refers to this use.

Alfalfa Looper (Autographa californica)


Photo by @nvhamlett

Loopers are so called for the way the caterpillars arch their backs as they crawl along in a looping manor. The caterpillars can cause damage not only to alfalfa, but also peas, sugar beets, beans, mint, and spinach. In most cases, control is needed only where insecticides applied for other pests have reduced natural enemy populations.

If you’re curious, you can see all of the BioBlitz observations here.

These observations are a big help to park managers at the city of Claremont, who use such data to make decisions about endangered species and invasive ones. For those of us fascinated by diversity, seeing these new species is also great fun and great learning.

Many, many thanks to @nvhamlett, @carolblaney, @keirmorse, @kwnaturalist, @alexiam068, @jeremyflores, @mskeschner, @moonlightrunner, @stephnjamie, @csuen, @scottmarnoy, @tonyjeremy4140 for contributing observations and making the BioBlitz a big success!

BioBlitz in the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park – Friday, April 25 – Monday, April 28!

Posted on by friendsofthewildernesspark

Please join the Friends of the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park Friday, April 25 – Monday, April 28 for a Wilderness Park BioBlitz in conjunction with the City Nature Challenge!

What is a BioBlitz?

Vicki Salazar and Diego Tamayo at the 2022 City Nature Challenge BioBlitz explaining the BioBlitz to Park visitors. ©Nancy Hamlett.

A BioBlitz is a communal citizen-science effort to record as many species as possible within a designated location and time period.  It’s a great opportunity to meet other naturalists, scientists, and curious members of the public to meet in person in the great outdoors and learn about the plants and animals that live in the Wilderness Park.

How will the BioBlitz work?

Observers will look for plants and animals in the Park, take a photo (or multiple photos) of an organism, and upload the photos to iNaturalist. You can take photos with either your smartphone or a camera.

What is iNaturalist?

iNaturalist is an online social network of people sharing biodiversity information to help each other learn about nature. iNaturalist is a collaboration between National Geographic and the California Academy of Sciences.  Anyone can participate in iNaturalist!

If you’ll be taking photos with your smartphone, do the following before arriving on at the Park please:

  1. Go to iNaturalist.org and create a free account. You should see “SIGN UP” featured prominently on the homepage.   Otherwise, there’s a “Sign Up” link in the top right corner. Once you’ve signed up, you can enter observations from either your phone or computer.
  2. Go to the Apple Store or the Google Play store and download the iNaturalist app. You can then upload your photos to iNaturalist right from your phone. This video shows you how:
How to Make an Observation with the iNaturalist Mobile App from iNaturalist on Vimeo.

If you’ll be taking photos with a camera, you will upload them later through the web interface. This video shows you how:

How to Use iNaturalist’s Photo Uploader from iNaturalist on Vimeo.

Are guides or tutorials available for iNaturalist?

How do I add my observations to the BioBlitz record?

You don’t need to do anything to add your observations to the BioBlitz record.  All observations made in the Park on the BioBlitz day will be automatically collected and added to the City Nature Challenge and Biota of the Wilderness Park projects.

We hope you’ll join us for the BioBlitz!

Solar Eclipse in the CWHP!

Posted on by friendsofthewildernesspark

Our Second Saturday event on October 14 coincided with a solar eclipse! Because the moon was at its farthest point from the earth, it didn’t completely cover the sun, and people in the path of totality saw a “Ring of Fire” eclipse. Here, however, the moon covered only about 70% of the sun. In the Park, the light was noticeably dimmer, and you could feel that the temperature dropped a few degrees.

The Friends had a poster explaining the what, when, and where of the eclipse as well as a safety remimnder. We had certified safe eclipse glasses that visitors could use to look at the eclipse. The most common comment was, “Wow! That’s really cool!”

Here are a few pictures:

2023 Monarch monitoring is underway

Posted on by friendsofthewildernesspark

Monarch and milkweed monitoring for the 2023 season is now underway in our monitoring plot in Johnson’s Pasture. After the cold winter, the milkweed is coming up much later this year. While milkweed plants were up and apparent in April, 2022, we did see any milkweed plants this year until the beginning of May, and some of them still aren’t up. Not surprisingly we haven’t seen any Monarch eggs or larvae yet, but we hope we will soon. Last year, we first saw monarch larvae in June.

Here are a few photos from this May. Click on the photos to see the captions.

If you would be interested in helping monitor monarchs and milkweed, please email info@friendsofthewildernesspark.org.