Ecological Musings: Foothills Park, Palo Alto, CA -- April 18th, 2025
Background:
I’m currently taking a California Ecology class. One of the class assignments is to keep a field journal of each of our weekly trips. Today’s journal is about our ecological restoration efforts at Foothills Park in Palo Alto, CA.
Baseline Data
Name: Foothills Nature Preserve (formerly Foothills Park)
Address: 3300 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94022
Coordinates: 37°21′6″N, 122°10′58″W
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🌤️ Weather Conditions on April 18, 2025
Temperature:
High: 64°F (18°C)
Low: 48°F (9°C)
Average: 57°F (14°C)
Cloud Cover: Approximately 46% of the sky was overcast or mostly cloudy
Wind:
Direction: West (280°)
Speed: Approximately 20.7 mph (33.3 km/h)
Gusts: Up to 28 mph (45 km/h)
Precipitation: No precipitation was reported on this day.
Humidity: The average relative humidity was around 71%.
Restoration work is always both rewarding and incredibly exhausting. For this particular restoration, we worked to eradicate the French Broom weed (Genista monspessulana) from deep within the forests of Foothills Park. We hiked a couple miles into the woods while carrying our big 10-15 lb weed whackers, in hand. We had done a similar restoration in my Bio 1C class a few months prior. That restoration, however, was in a park closer to Los Gatos, CA (Bear Creek, I believe).
One of the first species we encountered during this hike was a tick. We were warned to stay vigilant about tick bites because we would be trekking and working through tall grasses.
It’s a bit hard to see because the actual tick is slightly blurry in this photograph, but at the end of this particular blade of grass is a tick.
Now, I’m used to hearing the sentence “be aware of ticks” on hikes. I’d never been bitten by a tick before, however, and so I kind of just brushed it off. I did, still, try to avoid touching the tall grass as much as possible.
When we started our restoration, I couldn’t help but notice a searing pin-prick like pain in my arm. Upon uncovering my sleeve to take a look at it, I found myself staring eye to eye with none other than a tick. The first tick bite I’ve ever had in my life. I tried to remove it to no avail. Finally, I caved and asked one of the guides at Grasslands to remove it from me. I’ll be honest, I was pretty traumatized after that. My body tends to be somewhat rife with health issues involving chronic pain and chronic fatigue and I was almost certain I’d get a Lyme Disease diagnosis soon after the whole ordeal. Luckily, Gillian informed me that there really wasn’t anything to worry about. I’d found it within 24 hours of it being on my body and, besides which, most ticks apparently aren’t carrying Lyme anyway. And the pain of the tick bite subsided soon after when I accidentally rammed the trunk of a particularly thick french broom weed into my stomach (while pulling it). Classic.
Besides that, a couple of us ended up spending a good 30 minutes trying to remove one particular French broom plant that really deeply embedded into the ground. By the end of the hour, I was surprised that our class had pretty much removed all of the French Broom within the area that we were assigned.
Finally, we did a sit spot in the grasslands. I used this time to draw the scenery with my oil pastels.
A 7-minute oil pastel drawing I did during one of our “sit spot” sessions at the park. The scene portrays wildflowers against the backdrop of rolling hills and a bright blue sky.