Winter and Spring Park Fun Days

So hard to know what to call these events. Cleanups is so boring, and I can't decide whether it should be "cleanups" or "clean ups" or "clean-ups." "Workdays" sounds unfun. How about "Park Playdays?" No, that sounds like something you do with toddlers. Maybe, "Park Fun Days?" Got a bad feeling about that. Suggestions anyone?

The next scheduled fun days are:

• January 16 (Sat, 9 - noon)
• January 17 (Sun, 9- 11 am) in cooperation with Hahamongna Cooperative Nursery
• January 23 (Sat, 9 - noon)
• February 27 (Sat, 9 - noon)
• March 19 (Sat, 9 - noon)
• April 16 (Sat, 9 - noon) in cooperation with Hahamongna Cooperative Nursery
• May 14 (Sat, 9 - noon)

Map of park with areas labelled.

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

Since 2006 an informal group of park stewards, Friends of the Nature Park (FONP), have been removing invasive weeds and litter on Saturday 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).