Local Roots, Lasting Impact: Reforesting Parks and Restoring Native Gardens

Our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group had a beautiful day last Wednesday and two nature and climate-related destinations and talks for our weekly walk. There was a good turnout of 47 walkers and five K-9 best friends at the Exedra.

Before we started, we were reminded that next Wednesday, May 28th, Piedmont Fire Chief Dave Brannigan will give us a preview of the community evacuation exercise that is planned for the Scenic/Blair Avenues neighborhood on June 14th.  Additionally, we have been invited by the Recreation Department to walk again in the City’s 4th of July Parade and we are planning on doing it.

For the first part of the morning, Nancy Kent, the City’s Parks & Project Manager, was going to give us a tour of the Dracena Park Reforestation Project. After she finished, we would cross El Cerrito Avenue and see Jean Hansen’s CA native garden. It was the only Piedmont garden on the East Bay “Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour“ earlier in May.

We headed out going down Magnolia Avenue and went past what Phil W called “Piedmont’s Pool of the Future.” Workers were busy and progress is visible. We went across Hillside Avenue and enjoyed views of San Francisco through spaces between the street’s beautiful homes. We safely crossed Oakland Avenue at the stop light, went up to and down Blair Avenue to Dracena Avenue and the entrance to Dracena Park. At the top of the park, in its open grass area, Nancy was waiting for us.

She told us the City did an aerial inventory and found there are approximately 9,000 public trees and about 3,000 to 4,000 street trees in Piedmont. However, the aromatic ceders, Douglas firs, and some other species are dying. Many trees and other plants which thrived in a moderate climate with plenty of rain every winter are suffering and dying in our increasingly hot, windy, warming climate. The Dracena Park Reforestation Project is a city-led effort to remove dead trees and reforest with native plants and trees that require less moisture and can hopefully thrive in a hotter climate. Approximately 30 trees have been removed recently. The new trees include coastal live oaks, western dogwoods, redbuds, and big leaf maples. The City is planning 50 years out and planting trees that will be able to thrive in a dryer, warmer, future Piedmont.

After this overview, Nancy took us to an upper park path and area where some of the reforestation had been done. Two new, flowering western dogwoods were in the center of an open area. Some of the group’s K-9 best friend owners noted the foxtail weeds in the area can get stuck in their pets’ eyes, ears, and noses and create health problems. Nancy understood the issue, but said the City has a policy of not using chemical sprays in its parks for control and she plans to ask the gardeners to cut back the grasses containing these weeds. Nancy took us down through the park to another newly replanted area near the always popular tot lot where we took the attached group photo with Nancy and Jean Hansen. For one last park stop, Nancy showed us a recently planted big leaf maple near the park’s restroom. Nancy also said the Piedmont Beautification Foundation is conducting a campaign to support the City’s project to reforest Piedmont. We thanked Nancy for the wonderful tour. We then left the park, crossed El Cerrito Avenue, and stopped with Jean in front of her charming, 1912 cedar-shingled home.

Jean’s garden was the only Piedmont garden on the East Bay’s 2025 “Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour.” This tour is conducted on the first Saturday and Sunday of May each year, and this year was its 21st.  Jean told us that her front garden is approximately 1,000 square feet and 98% native. The side and back gardens are approximately 1,270 square feet and 70% native. The front garden was installed in 2008 and the back and side gardens were installed in stages, beginning in 2013.

Jean was inspired by the initial “Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour,” and she wanted to redesign her front yard, which was inhabited by grass and camellias at the time and replaced them with natives that include Coffee Berries, Manzanitas, Clevelandii Sages, Ribes, Epilobium (CA fuchsia), Irises, Heuchera, and more. They complement her rustic home and provide habitat for wildlife. Jean only has to water these native plants about once a month. They flourish on the slope that leads up to the house.

Jean replaced a small lawn in the back garden with a native, mow-free bunchgrass lawn. The side and backyard have a variety of co-mingling edibles and natives. The gardens were designed collaboratively by Jean and several gardeners. She took us up the side path to the backyard where we also enjoyed its native beauty.

After our visit, we thanked Jean for sharing her garden and we climbed up El Cerrito to Magnolia to the Exedra. We returned with a better understanding of the challenges posed by climate change to our plants and trees and, thanks to Nancy and Jean, the solutions that are available to us.