October 26 Plant Walk – Tilden Regional Park Botanic Garden
This is a Milo Baker member-only plant walk
Sunday October 26, 10:45 – 3:30 pm
Tilden Regional Park Botanic Garden
1550 Wildcat Canyon Road, Berkeley
Register by email by October 19 with subject line “Tilden Botanic Garden” to milobakerevents@gmail.com (limited to 20 Milo Baker members)
Carpool options (or arrange your own): Santa Rosa: 9:15 am: meet at Macy’s parking lot, Coddingtown, east side near Cleveland Ave. Sebastopol: 9:15 am: meet at Lucky parking lot near Highway 116.
We will carpool for the hour+ long drive to Tilden Park, meeting at 9:15 am. If you are driving on your own, plan to meet us there by 10:45 am. A guided docent tour is available at 11:00 for those who are interested. Admission to the Garden is free. We will gather for a picnic afterwards; bring a lunch and drink, and wear sturdy shoes; there are many narrow paths and steps. Meet at the entrance on Anza View Road. We will assemble to return to Sonoma County by 2:00 pm.
Come celebrate the 60th anniversary of CNPS at the CA native plant garden that started it all. Get inspired seeing native plant communities in the landscape after our plant sale, and spend time with friends in the beautiful Berkeley hills. The native plants in the garden are organized into 10 geographically based sections representing Southern CA, Shasta-Klamath, Valley Foothill, Santa Lucia, Channel Islands, Sierra Nevada, Redwood forest, Sea Bluff, Pacific rain forest, and Franciscan regions.
From the CNPS website: Berkeley, California – 1965. An eclectic mix of nature lovers, gardeners, and plant experts came together as The Bay Area Group to save Tilden Park’s native botanic garden. The group succeeded, and in doing so realized their cause was bigger than a single garden’s preservation. Located in the hills above the iconic campus, Tilden Park’s garden represented much of what a rapidly growing California stood to lose – a rare mix of biodiversity, a connection to the wild, and a sense of this place we call home.
Brief History: “The garden was the brainchild of Professor Howard McMinn of Mills College in 1938. He knew of an extensive collection of California native plants at the US Forest Service’s California Forest and Range Experiment Station in Berkeley, which had been assembled with the help of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) teams gathering seeds. Under Prof. McMinn’s urging, the Forest Service and EBRPD formed a cooperative agreement to create a new botanic garden in Tilden Park, and a committee was formed of local conservationists and botanists to select an appropriate site.
McMinn further induced James Roof, superintendent of the Forest Service nursery, to split time to work with the park district. Roof began work on the new garden in January 1940, beginning with the layout which he designed, and he became the guiding spirit behind the garden for the next forty years.” Read further at: https://livingnewdeal.org/sites/tilden-park-botanical-garden-berkeley-ca/
Please contact Lynn Houser with any questions at milobakerevents@gmail.com. This is a Milo Baker member trip and not advertised on Eventbrite. Reserve your spot by emailing Lynn at milobakerevents@gmail.com. Limited to 20 people.
For a complete list of our plant walks, see our Plant Walk page.