The Friends of the Wilderness Park held their first ever invasive plant removal event on Saturday, January 28, when a dedicated group of volunteers, including members of Boy Scout Troop 407, removed Sahara Mustard from the Sycamore Canyon Trail.
Sahara Mustard has done horrible damage to the desert east of her, displacing native wildflowers and other native plants as well as creating a fire hazard where none had existed previously. Fortunately, Sahara Mustard has only established a few relatively small infestations in the Wilderness Park, so we have an excellent chance of eradicating this pest.
Two of the infestations are along the Sycamore Canyon Trail – one at the bottom of the trail and one about one-third of the way up. Although you always miss some, we tried to remove all of the mustard in both of those areas, and we filled 15 contractor bags full of mustard! It will take a few years before all the mustard is gone, as a seed bank has already been established, but we hope to see progress soon!
We hope to be having invasive plant removal events about once a month except for the hot part of the summer. If you’d like to get an announcement, just sign up for our email list.
Here are some photos from the mustard removal:
Drew, Quin, and Aiden get to work in the mustard patch.Naomi gets the mustard from the south edge of the patch.Drew and Quin pulling mustard.Teddy pulls mustard from the edge of the Sycamore Canyon Trail.Iris pulls mustard from the side of the trail.The characteristic Sahara Mustard seed pods.Drew, Quin, and Aiden show off their giant mustard plants.Ali and Aiden with some impressively large mustard plants.Teddy hauls a big bag of mustard back down the trail.We thought we were done, but Teddy and Nancy find another little patch of mustard.A bag of Sahara Mustard.Naomi, Drew, Quin, Ali, and Aiden with the bags of mustard.Teddy and Iris with the bags of mustard.Nancy with the bags of mustard.
September 7, 2021 marks the third official celebration of CaliforniaBiodiversity Day, an annual event created in 2018 to celebrate the state’s exceptional biodiversity and encourage actions to protect it. This year organizations throughout the state are hosting California Biodiversity Day events from September 4 to September 12, 2021, and the City of Claremont Park Rangers together with the Friends of the Wilderness Park be celebrating in the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park on the morning of Saturday, September 11.
Join us on Saturday morning, September 11th and learn how to use your phone to record observations of Wilderness Park flora and fauna with iNaturalist! Just look for the canopy near the North Mills entrance for more information! All iNaturalist observations made in California from September 4 – September 12 will automatically be added to the California Biodiversity Day 2021 iNaturalist project.
Already an iNaturalist user?
Please come and help show others to use the iNaturalist app! Contact Vicki Salazar, our Volunteer Coordinator, at vickisalazar01@gmail.com, to let her know when you will be able to come. (Please note that all Friends of the Wilderness Park volunteers are required to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19.)
New to 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!
Before arriving on Saturday please:
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.
On your smart phone, go to the Apple Store or the Google Play store and download the iNaturalist app.
Once you’ve signed up, you can enter observations from either your phone or computer. The iNaturalist site has a really good explanation here:
In addition to the “California Biodiversity Day” project, any observations you make in the Wilderness Park (at any time) will be automatically added to the “Biota of the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park” project. This project was created by the Friends of the Wilderness Park specifically for documenting the plants and animals of the Wilderness Park.
If feasible, crop your photos to feature the subject, especially if it’s not clear whether the subject is the bird or the tree, for example.
Include a little description. For one thing, you can use the description to say what’s the subject. But you can also note any additional details, interesting behavior, type of habitat, odors, etc. that may not be obvious from the photo.
Give the most specific ID you can, even if it’s not to the species level. For instance, “insect”, “snake”, or even “plant” or “animal” is better than just having “unknown”.
Give a little info about yourself in your profile – it increases your credibility.
The City of Claremont has lifted the restrictions that prevented the Friends from holding Second Saturday events in the Park. We had a “soft open” with a few volunteers on July 10, when we were visited by Claremont Mayor Jennifer Stark, and a regular Second Saturday event on August 14.
The second Saturday volunteer program is a collaboration of the Friends of the Wilderness Park, CHWP Rangers, and City Staff. On the second Saturday of each month, for four hours Friends’ volunteers:
Answer questions about the Park.
Provide directions (with a map that visitors can photograph).
Remind visitors to take adequate water for themselves and their dogs.
Give water and/or refillable water bottles (or a drink from a dog bowl) to those in need.
Remind visitors to keep dogs on leashes and not play music out loud.
Hike the loop, picking up trash and answering questions along the way.
We are always looking for volunteers for Second Saturday, so if you’re interested, please contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Vicki Salazar at vickisalazar01@gmail.com, or if you’re in the Park, stop by and say, “Hi”.
September 7, 2019 marks the first official celebration of CaliforniaBiodiversity Day, an annual event created last year to celebrate the state’s exceptional biodiversity and encourage actions to protect it. The city of Claremont Park Rangers together with the Friends of the Wilderness Park will be observing California Biodiversity Day 2019 at the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park.
Join us this Saturday, September 7thfrom 6:30am to 9:30am and learn how to use your phone to contribute to science and the Wilderness Park with iNaturalist! Just look for the canopy near the North Mills entrance for more information!
Already an iNaturalist user?
Please come and help show others to use the iNaturalist app!
New to 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!
Before arriving on Saturday please:
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.
On your smart phone, go to the Apple Store or the Google Play store and download the iNaturalist app.
Once you’ve signed up, you can enter observations from either your phone or computer. The iNaturalist site has a really good explanation here:
The Friends of the Wilderness Park have created an iNaturalist project for documenting the plants and animals of the Wilderness Park. If you make iNaturalist observations in the Park, they will automatically be collected and added to the project!
If you’d like to check out the CHWP project and see what’s already been reported, just go here:
If feasible, crop your photos to feature the subject, especially if it’s not clear whether the subject is the bird or the tree, for example.
Include a little description. For one thing, you can use the description to say what’s the subject. But you can also note any additional details, interesting behavior, type of habitat, odors, etc. that may not be obvious from the photo.
Give the most specific ID you can, even if it’s not to the species level. For instance, “insect”, “snake”, or even “plant” or “animal” is better than just having “unknown”.
Give a little info about yourself in your profile — it increases your credibility.
Friends of the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park 