Forty-five, 6th Grade Students and their Teachers from the Creative Arts Charter School in San Francisco, joined Life Frames, Inc. and SF Recreation & Park Department in St. Mary’s Park on Friday, January 17th, to plant about 100 California native plants in St. Mary’s Park, as part of the Bernal Heights Living Library & Think Park Nature Walk.  The students also learned about the Islais Creek, the Islais Creek Watershed, and did some weeding in the Nature Walk.  They accomplished much by their help, and the Nature Walk is growing !

 Volunteers planted all California Natives:  Matilija Poppy (Romneya coulteri), Yarrow (Achillea spp.), Douglas Iris (Iris douglasiana), Sticky Monkey (Mimulus aurantiacus), Ceanothus (Ceanothus ‘Ray Hartman’), California Milkweed (Asclepias californica), Buckwheat (Eriogonum giganteum), Penstemon (Penstemon ‘Electric Blue’ & ‘Margarita Bop’), and Island Tree Mallow (Lavatera assurgentiflora).

The Bernal Heights Living Library Nature Walk links schools, parks, public housing, streets, and other open spaces leading to the currently hidden Islais Creek at the south side of St. Mary’s Park.  The Nature Walk is creating a new, expressive,  narrative landscape that is a prototype for what could be occurring throughout the whole Islais Creek Watershed, the largest in San Francisco, that interlinks eleven neighborhoods:  Noe Valley, Mission, Bernal Heights, Potrero Hill, Bayview, Portola, Crocker-Amazon, Excelsior, OMI, Sunnyside, Glen Park.

More volunteer events are coming up !  The next is January 28th at St. Mary’s Park from 9:30 am-12:30 pm.  If  you would like to participate, or for more information about volunteer planting days, please contact us:  info@alivinglibrary.org