Friday, December 27, 2013

MLK Service Day Park Planting Party

In celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr., students from Occidental College and local volunteers will be planting native plants in the Arroyo Seco-South Pasadena Woodland and Wildlife Park (South Pas Nature Park, for short), on February 1, 2014. Volunteers are welcome to come anytime during the day.

February 1, 2014, Saturday
9 am - 3:30 pm

Planting Party
Oxy students and South Pas girl scouts carry plants into the park
during 2010 Planting Party

Volunteers should:
  • wear sunscreen, hat, sunglasses
  • bring water
  • bring gardening gloves and tools (weeders, trowels, whatever you use in your own garden)
  • wear comfortable work clothes, including work shoes (sneakers or boots) and long pants
  • bring binoculars for birdwatching (optional)
Children must be under adult supervision at all times. There is poison oak in the park that we will point out before starting.

The South Pas Nature Park is a four-acre habitat park along the Arroyo Seco. The entrance, marked by a small plaque on an attractive river rock wall, is in the 100 block of Pasadena Avenue in South Pasadena, east of the York Street Bridge. There is plenty of on-street parking on Pasadena Avenue.

The park is graced with mature coast live oaks, southern walnuts and western sycamores. Planted with sage, buckwheat and other native coastal sage scrub plants, the park provides an inviting environment for birds, lizards, squirrels and numerous other critters. Locals too enjoy walking, jogging and horseback riding through the park.

Coast Live Oak
Coast live oak

Since 2006 an informal group of park stewards, Friends of the Nature Park (FONP), have been removing invasive weeds and litter on Saturday and Wednesday mornings.  Cleanups are held approximately once a month. For notification of cleanup dates, contact Barbara Eisenstein (barbara.eisenstein@gmail.com), or check the Nature Park blog, (http://www.nativebydesign.blogspot.com).