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. Here is the management plan.
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 65 volunteers who have subscribed to our regular email newsletters and work at this site. They have posted 56 photos and 18 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.
Planting January 2006
03 February 2008 - 14:22, Tinman said:
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The fencing experiment in the South Bowl was so successful that we decided to extend the protected area higher up the hill, where there was lots of damage from digging and walking.
Here we’re installing the fence:
And note the large crew busily planting the new area:
Finally here are the results:
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Planting in December 2004
03 February 2008 - 13:07, Tinman said:
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With the well-documented problems of trampling and digging and their impact on our new plantings, we tried a new technique: temporarily protecting these areas with short fences. This has been a remarkable success, as it turns out.
Here we’re putting up such a fence in the South Bowl region just below the summit:
And here we’re planting the area:
Over half of this area, we’re trying an application of mulch to help keep down weeds. The other half is the control. As it turned out, the mulch really didn’t seem to provide much benefit.
However, the fencing has proved to be hugely successful. In contrast to prior years’ failures, we have had great results in this area. Here is the final result:
And here is Lena showing us how all this is done:
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