Greening Oakland

The metal memorial amid the plants of the Firestorm Memorial Garden.

If you happen to be in the north Oakland, CA, area, you might notice some well-maintained and landscaped gardens, five of them. They're all the work of the OAKLAND LANDSCAPE COMMITTEE, led by Gordon Piper, the Founder.

The first garden, the Firestorm Memorial Garden, grew in response to a firestorm that enveloped the Oakland Hills, costing 25 lives and many homes, including that of Gordon Piper. The next, the Frank H. Ogawa Firescape Garden, was planted at the North Oakland Sports Field, and includes vegetation management to prevent wildfires, something that the garden at the Gateway Emergency Preparedness Exhibit Center, also features. Their Broadway Garden is part of the Adopt A Highway program.


In addition, the group also assists with maintaining and beautifying local park gardens and has developed and maintained school gardens throughout the area. The group relies extensively on volunteers with all levels of experience. Those with more extensive backgrounds in gardening share their skills with the other volunteers and with students at the local skills. The group also provides community service experiences for juvenile offenders. They also accept monetary donations.

The most recent project of the Oakland Landscape Committee has been the Oakland Pollinator Gardens Project, which has added thousands of pollinator plants to their public gardens, especially at the Broadway Garden. Because of previous extensive use of pesticides, there was a noticeable decline the amount of pollinators, so the idea behind this project is to create conditions necessary to increase the numbers of pollinators, mostly with plants that they favor.

As you can see, there are many ways that the Oakland Landscape Committee has utilized to make Oakland a plant- and garden-friendly city. It gives beauty to the eye, safety to the residents, and an overall pleasant experience.

A "Love in the Mist" flower, a pollinator attractant.

Thanks to information from this Pollination Project article: https://thepollinationproject.org/grants-awarded/gordon-piper-oakland-landscape-committee-oakland-pollinator-gardens-project/, and the above links.

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