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Dispatch from the Canyon

May 26, 2011 by Elizabeth Weise

"Kay Westerburg excavating wild radish in Glen Canyon." May 25, 2011.

By Murray Schneider

“Neither rain, nor snow, now sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds,” said Friends of Glen Canyon Park volunteer, Mary Huizinga, while rain pelted down on City gardener Randy Zebell’s Rec and Parks truck as it eased its way along Alms Road.

Huizinga had just completed her weekly Wednesday morning canyon stint grooming Glen Canyon, and she now sat in Zebell’s truck, snug and warm, inching her way to a well-deserved break beneath the “owl” tree, a towering eucalyptus that stands only a few feet from the canyon WPA Recreation Center, and serves as a magnet each spring for Glenridge pre-school children who annually search its branches for nesting baby Great Horned Owls.

Mary might have said the same for two other volunteers who had earlier slogged along a slushy and circuitous trail above a seep adjacent to the Glen Canyon boardwalk just east of Islais Creek, one of the Bay Area’s last remaining fresh water creeks.

The volunteers were on route to do battle with invasive wild radish and prickly Italian thistle.

Before their ascent and before the raindrops saturated their rain shells, each had knelt on the canyon’s floor, among Cape ivy and blackberry, attempting to unravel tendrils of mock strawberry that threaded its way in clandestine stalks beneath carpets of ivy.

"Taking a cookie and water break on rainy morning." Gardener Rachel Kesel, volunteers Mary Huizinga, Jean Conner, Kay Westerburg, gardener Randy Zebell and volunteer Steven Uchida.

“This is the first time I’ve seen it here,” said Zebell, a Rec and Parks natural habitats gardener. “Left to its own devices it will spread through the understory.”

Later in the morning, Zebell led his volunteers high above Alms Road where they eventually founds thickets of wild radish smörgåsborded among clumps of thorny thistle. The volunteers began tugging and pulling, stuffing the excavated weeds into yellow pop-up bags that were later emptied into blue tarp and then piled onto a compost heap.

Surveying the growing mound, after an hour-and-a-half, Zebell said, “It’s bigger than it was last week.”

He looked up at the grey sky, water soaking through his blue hooded sweatshirt, and glanced at his wristwatch.

“I didn’t dress for rain,” he said. “It’s quitting time.”

Kay Westerburg, a retired Herbert Hoover middle school teacher, yanked at a bulbous radish trunk. “This is too big,” she said.

“Leave it for next week,” said Zebell. “It’ll take a mattock.”

Zebell, Westerburg and Steven Uchida, a retired United States postal worker, collected their belongings, picked up their patched pop-up bags and began the descent back down the marshy path. Mud sucked at their soles of their work shoes and the cuffs of their pants clung to their legs.

“Careful,” Zebell called, “It’s mucky.” Zebell, a steward of the Glen Park 60-acre open space, passed a tree he had reintroduced to the habitat a few weeks before and gestured to the volunteers. He pointed to sprouting leaves. “See. It’s grown already.”

The group stepped onto the boardwalk as a dog walker passed, a St. Bernard lumbering in her wake.

The volunteers piled into the Zebell’s truck and drove back along Alms Road. They could hear a sparrow’s song and the rhymes of children on an outing, impervious to the rain.

Beneath the “owl” tree, the volunteers devoured a bag of cookies and sipped water from a thermos perched on the tailgate of Zebell’s truck. They stood together for a while in companionable conversation, recounting the day’s efforts until, until, one-by-one, each slipped away to the mid-day warmth of their own homes.

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IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES

Upper Noe Neighbors Community Meeting Wednesday, May 21, 7 p.m.
Upper Noe Recreation Center auditorium
295 Day Street
Agenda


San Francisco Department of Public Works logoDPW Love Our City
District 8 Cleanup Day
Saturday, June 7, 9 a.m. to afternoon
Learn more and sign up here


 

Logo Center for Creative Exploration

The Center for Creative Exploration
Explore all the Colors of the Rainbow
one-day workshop
Saturday, June 7, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
300 Chenery Street
Learn more and link to registration here


Weeding Party
June 21, 10 a.m. to noon
100 block of Arlington at Charles
Join neighbors on the North end of the Cut to keep down the weeds and beautify top to bottom. Tools, lunch and good company provided.



Stop the bleed logoStop the Bleed Workshop
Thursday, June 26, 6-9 p.m.
St. Aidan’s Church
To learn more, click here


Monthly cleanup on the Greenway
First Saturday of the Month (usually)
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Friends of Glen Canyon’s
Glen Canyon Habitat Restoration
Every third Saturday 9:30 a.m to noon
Sign up here

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Saturdays 3-4:45 p.m.
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Join the Glen Park Association and help promote our community’s interests. Together, we can secure improvement funds, publicize neighborhood concerns and strive to speak as one voice on neighborhood and city issues.

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Glen Park Association is at San Francisco Public Library Glen Park Branch.
3 days ago
Glen Park Association

Photos and Fun courtesy of the Glen Park Library!
It was a great turnout at the Glen Park Library Open House on Saturday May 17th!

Thank you to all who attended and a big thank you to Glen Park Branch Library Manager Darren Heiber and his staff for a fantastic day!! 🙌🏽

San Francisco Public Library Arion Press | Artist Books Museum of Craft and Design Rafael Mandelman 🏳️‍🌈 #glenparklibrary #arionpress #museumofcraftanddesign #glenparksf #sanfrancisco #InCommunity
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Photos and Fun courtesy of the Glen Park Library! 
It was a great turnout at the Glen Park Library Open House on Saturday May 17th!

Thank you to all who attended and a big thank you to Glen Park Branch Library Manager Darren Heiber and his staff for a fantastic day!! 🙌🏽

@sfpubliclibrary @arionpress @museumofcraftanddesign @rafaelmandelmand8 #glenparklibrary #arionpress #museumofcraftanddesign #glenparksf #sanfrancisco #incommunity
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Glen Park Association is at Glen Park Recreation Center.
4 days ago
Glen Park Association

Qi Gong & Tai Chi Thursdays at the Glen Park Rec Center!

Thursdays 2:00PM - 2:45PM
Room #1
Led by led by Ashima Sarin

Beginners and All Levels of Mobility Are Welcome! It’s FREE and drop-in!

(There will be no class the second half of June and July)

📍Glen Park Rec Center, 70 Elk Street

QUESTIONS? CALL 415-239-4007
... See MoreSee Less

Qi Gong & Tai Chi Thursdays at the Glen Park Rec Center!

Thursdays  2:00PM - 2:45PM 
Room #1
Led by led by Ashima Sarin

Beginners and All Levels of Mobility Are Welcome! It’s FREE and drop-in! 

(There will be no class the second half of June and July)

📍Glen Park Rec Center, 70 Elk Street 

QUESTIONS? CALL 415-239-4007
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Blog Roll

Coyote Yipps
Friends of Upper Noe Recreation Center
Glen Park Neighborhoods History Project
Open SF History
Sunnyside Conservatory
Sunnyside History
Sunnyside Neighborhood Association
Tramps of San Francisco
Upper Noe Neighbors

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