The NPS Habitat Restoration Team is guiding an ongoing effort to restore native species of oak woodland trees and plants to 30 sites within the GGNRA, San Francisco Bay Area National Parks spokeswoman Jennifer Chapman said Friday.
Park rangers and community volunteers will concentrate their restoration efforts in the area of the Tam Fire, near Eastwood Park in Tamalpais Valley, where 12 acres of dense eucalyptus groves burned close to a residential neighborhood in May 2004.
Eucalyptus trees, not native to Mt. Tamalpais, are highly flammable and were planted there in groves in the early 20th century to provide wind breaks.
Officials reported that more than 1,500 eucalyptus trees burned in the Tam Fire.
The GGNRA restoration work day will employ volunteers of all ages to revisit the site of that fire to discourage eucalyptus trees from regenerating, and to restore tree and plant species native to Mount Tamalpais, enhancing the natural integrity of the habitat while replacing flammable groves with a less fire-prone environment.
Volunteers will gather at 9:30 a.m. on Dec 7 at Alice Eastwood Group Campground on Mount Tamalpais.
