Earth Day on Mount Tamalpais Highlights a New Spirit of Collaboration

The 44th annual Earth Day took place on April 22, continuing a tradition that started when the burgeoning environmental movement of the 60s and 70s inspired people to come together and protect our Mother Earth. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, often referred to as the founder of Earth Day, spoke in Denver on April 22, 1970.  His words were prophetic when he stated that “Earth Day is dramatic evidence of a broad new national concern that cuts across generations and ideologies. It may be symbolic of a new communication between young and old about our values and priorities.”

Friends of Mt Tam, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the National Park Service, California State Parks, and the Marin Municipal Water District all came together to work collaboratively and celebrate Earth Day on Mount Tamalpais. The event took place on Saturday, April 26, the first weekend after the official Earth Day and also the birthday of John James Audubon, who was born on April 26, 1785.

It was a way to put into practice the goals of the Tamalpais Lands Collaborative (TLC), a partnership that came together in 2013. The TLC seeks to manage the stewardship of Mount Tamalpais in a manner that transcends the artificial boundaries of the multitude of jurisdictions currently found on the mountain.

A trial run of this collaborative spirit was carried out in September, 2013, when Friends of Mt Tam and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy had a collaborative volunteer work day. It was a small group of people that turned out to pull French broom along the Alice Eastwood Road, but it planted the seeds of collaboration that are now growing into a powerful partnership.

The Earth Day celebration was a much larger affair, with more than 100 people coming together to carry out trail maintenance, non-native plant removal, split-rail fence installation, and campground cleanup. The event started out with coffee and bagels in the parking lot of the Pantoll headquarters of Mount Tamalpais State Park. In commemoration of John James Audubon, State Park Ranger Cecilia Rejas rallied the group with a series of birdcalls. She taught us the distinctive call of our state bird, the California quail, followed by the incessant waka-waka-waka of the acorn woodpecker.

A small ceremony was held off to the side, where Friends of Mt Tam presented the state park rangers with a special gift. One of the important functions of Friends of Mt Tam is to raise money to support Mount Tamalpais State Park, and they made a much needed contribution of a bicycle repair station. The box of tools, air pumps, and tire patches was handed over by Friends of Mt Tam Vice President Chris Jones to Rangers Ryen Goering and Tom Frazier. It will be installed at East Peak, near the top of the mountain, a popular destination for both mountain bikers and road bikers.

After the introductory remarks, including the necessary safety talk, in which Ranger Rejas showed us how to identify poison oak, we broke up into groups to carry out our assigned tasks. Each group took the name of one of the creatures found on Mount Tam, and I joined the Arboreal Salamanders group. Our mission was to pull French broom, an invasive weed that has become a scourge across the parklands of California.

We headed out from Pantoll, down the Old Mine Trail, on the lookout for the distinctive bright yellow flowers of French broom. It’s usually not difficult to find, but we only saw a little bit of “baby broom,” the small sprigs that will rapidly grow into the deep-rooted bushes that cover entire hillsides. As we continued down the trail, we did see a lot of California poppies, blue-eyed grass, Douglas iris, both deep purple and yellow varieties, and even one stunning calypso orchid.

With so little French broom to be found on the Old Mine Trail, Ranger Rejas led us to a place where she knew of a large patch that would keep us busy all morning. We hiked out on the Matt Davis Trail, through rocky serpentine outcrops and grassy slopes that looked out to the Pacific Ocean. We came around a corner and saw an overwhelming sight: an entire hillside covered from top to bottom in French broom. It looked like much more than our group of about 25 people could handle, but we set off with determination, ascending the steep hill and going to work with our weed wrenches.

After a couple of hours of hard work, we were amazed to see that most of the broom was gone. We scoured the hillside looking for the last holdouts, the few remaining sprigs of baby broom. Then we gathered up the broom and brought it down to the bottom of the hill, where it was thrown into a massive pile. Looking back up the hillside, we all felt a strong feeling of accomplishment. We then gathered for a group photo to savor our triumph.

We hiked back to Pantoll for a much appreciated lunch of burritos, chips and salsa donated by Grillys, along with chocolate chip cookies donated by Safeway. It was a great day of working together in a spirit of collaboration. Now we just need to continue in that spirit. Perhaps it will be helpful to remember the words of Henry Ford: