On June 19th, 2024, AYLUS Oakland Gardens held its 74th event at Crocheron Park. We were once again accompanied by the Friends of Crocheron & John Golden Park. Dana Gumb, Paul Brumb, and Gene are volunteers dedicated to maintaining the park. During this event, we clipped Japanese knotweed, collected wood branches, planted plants in the garden, and spread wood chips around bushes.
Before we began our work for the day, a special guest introduced himself. Ralph, a manager for our district’s environment, has long supported our branch, giving us the opportunity to work at many locations around the district. Today, he came to express his immense thanks for our services and encourage us to keep up our good work. After 27 years, his time working in the district is unfortunately coming to an end. Although he may not know it, we will forever remember him and everything he has done to support us.
An event with the Friends of Crocheron & John Golden Park does not start without a journey around the park. While we moved the wheelbarrows and tools to our first station, Dana introduced us to the trees and plants around the park. Right off the bat, we walked past a sweet gum tree, which provides shade, especially on a day like this. Further back is a woody debris pile, where the Park Department would come to turn the debris into wood chips. As we moved along the path, Dana introduced us to many unique plant and tree species. An interesting example is the Virginia creeper, which has over 200 faunal associations, meaning that this humble little vine is depended on by many animals around the park. This area also holds many berry species. The mock strawberry looks like a strawberry but tastes more like water. The serviceberry, or June berry, produces berries only around June for two weeks, but if you’re fortunate enough to gather one, is very delicious and even more nutritious than typical berries. On top of a hill are the black chokeberry trees and blueberry bushes, which would be among our main focuses of the event.
Our first station involved clipping Japanese knotweed, or itadori. The weed was first brought to Central Park due to its flowers and honey; however, its rapid growth caused it to become an invasive species. Since the weed continues to spread around the park, Dana proposed a clever solution. If we were to continue cutting the weed down to prevent its flowers from ever blooming, the weed would have no pollinated seeds to keep reproducing. Thus, everyone who brought scissors began clearing the path of the Japanese knotweed, while avoiding sections with lingering poison ivy.
Along this path was a ton of excess wood debris on the fields. Although these branches would be left alone to decompose in a natural forest, our park cannot risk a fire spreading along the wood debris in case of an accident such as a lightning strike. Another team was tasked with collecting the previously left branches along with the new knotweed branches as they were clipped. These branches go to another woody debris pile further along the road. The branches’ cut ends must be facing the road to prevent creating a “jigsaw puzzle” for the Park Department when they come to collect them.
While most of our group worked on clipping and collecting branches, another station of five members followed Paul to a separate road for watering. Using one of the wheelbarrows, we brought empty milk jugs to a water facility to be filled with water. The milk jugs were then carried back to the path, where we gently watered many plants and young trees. These species include the sumac plant, box elder maple, spicebush, and viburnum. In order for these plants to thrive in the summer heat, they had to be watered daily. We went back and forth around five times before finishing this task.
After a portion of our group had completed their tasks, many members followed Dana to the berry hill, where we collected even more excess branches and brought them down to the woody debris pile near the sweet gum tree. Some of us also surrounded serviceberries and chokeberries with wood chips in a donut shape. The wood chips acted as a barrier to future lawn mowers coming near the area. Although many of the chokeberry trees were marked with steel beams, we couldn’t risk the young trees being run over.
Those finished with their previous tasks moved on to our last station, the garden, where Paul and Gene awaited. Since this was a continuation of our last event, most of us already knew the planting procedure, so we immediately got to work. The park workers had set up water-filled milk jugs scattered around to water the plants. Some of us did some clipping in another section of the garden. We also moved a wheelbarrow filled with debris to the top of the garden hill, where we spread the debris along the border of a large plant bed.
As we finished up the tasks for the day, many of us gathered around a nearby shade to catch our breath and reflect on everything we accomplished despite the intense heat. We then gathered all of our tools and wheelbarrows back to the shed, completing yet another event.
Perhaps the beauty of working with Dana and his Friends is the fascinating lectures on the variety of species in Crocheron Park. Or perhaps it is the multitude of stations they prepare for us during every event hosted by them. That’s why we always end up learning or experiencing something new while making an impact.
We extend our gratitude to all volunteers who participated in this event and to the Friends of Crocheron & John Golden Park—Dana, Gene, and Paul—for their dedication to this park’s environment and ecosystem. We eagerly anticipate what they have in store for us next time!
Our volunteers:
Jia Qi Liu (Angela): 3.5 hours
Hong Hao Liu : 3.5 hours
Vicki Lin : 3.5 hours
Sophia ShiHan You: 3.5 hours
Benny Yeung : 3.5 hours
Shirley Chiu: 3.5 hours
Sophia li : 3.5 hours
Stephanie ShiRan You :3.5 hours
Yuan Gu : 3.5 hours
Ziheng Jiao : 3.5 hours
Ricky Song : 3.5 hours
William liang: 3.5 hours
Thomas liang: 3.5 hours
Justin Cheong: 3.5 hours
Anthony Lin : 3.5 hours
Amy Liu : 3.5 hours
Bowen Chen : 3.5 hours
Rex He : 3.5 hours
Alex Lu : 3.5 hours
Matthew Lin: 3.5 hours
Kingsley Chen: 3.5 hours
Aiden Lin: 3.5 hours
Brandon Lin: 3.5 hours
Hannah Liu: 3.5 hours
Darren Li : 3.5 hours
Austin Li : 3.5 hours
Iokseng Lin : 3.5 hours
Ioklee Lin : 3.5 hours
Ioknor Lin : 3.5 hours
Nerissa Xu : 3.5 hours m
Paxton Xu: 3.5 hours
Hangxu Yu : 3.5 hours
Zhengyilan Fang : 3.5 hours
Albert Tang: 2 hours
Parent Adviser Team:
Cui Fang Li (Fannie): 4.5 hours
Teng Fei Liu (Faye): 4.5 hours
Hsinhui Liao (Karen): 4.5 hours
Report written by: Brandon Lin
Reviewed by: Jia Qi (Angela) Liu
