Friends of Santa Teresa Park Meeting, 6/2/16

 


  • Attendees: Mike Boulland, Greg & Roxanne Koopman, Marty Reinders, Ron Horii
  • Our balance is $1018.50, before the UNSCC dues.
  • Santa Clara County is looking at getting the U.S. Congress to designate the County as a National Heritage Area (NHA). It's a program administered by the National Park Service. It recognizes areas whose natural, cultural, and historic resources combine to tell an important story about our national experience. There are currently no NHA's in California. The County is looking for places to nominate. Mike suggests Mt Umunhum, New Almaden, Santa Teresa, Grant Ranch, and Mt. Hamilton. The Board of Supervisors has set up a new commission, the National Heritage Area Task Force. It will have 11 commissioners and 11 alternates. NHA designation can lead to grants.
  • Festival in the Park at Hellyer is this Saturday June 4. We won't have a newsletter ready in time for it, but Ron made a flyer, which Mike can replicate and bring to hand out at the County Parks' booth.
  • We want to publish our next newsletter in time for Fandango on Aug. 13. Mike wrote a story on Dorothy Wuss for our next newsletter. Dorothy is a Bernal descendant on the Sunol side. Mike will write an article about the new Santa Teresa Spring trail project and the March safety meeting. Ron can write an article about wildflowers with pictures in the park, particularly of creamsacs. Ron can write about Fandango and that Chris Carson is organizing it. He can also write about his photo class. Greg can write about biking in the park and watching out for poison oak. We can show pictures of poison oak. 
  • Ron showed a slideshow: frog poster and butterfly poster at the Bernal Ranch, weed clearing on the trails, late-season wildflowers, graffiti on the storage building above the Ohlone Trail and the back of the Coyote Peak sign, views from the Boundary and other trails, a homeless person camped behind the driving range, plant growth around Santa Teresa Spring, closure of the Joice Trail due to fire training, gardens at the Bernal Ranch, grafitti around the falls at the end of the Nature Trail, Amphibian Night at the Bernal Ranch.
  • Greg said that goatheads (puncturevines) are a problem. The seeds can puncture bike tires. Maybe  some trailwork can be done to remove them.
  • At Fandango, Barbara Brown will do a slideshow in the east barn about the history of the Berryessa family. She is in charge of the Monterey County Historical Museum. The Berryessas had ranches in Monterey, Salinas, Santa Rita, and the Cache Creek area. 
  • We are going on a field trip on Aug. 28 to see the Santa Rita Church in Salinas with Barbara Brown. She has relatives in the cemetery at the church in Santa Rita. The Berryessas are also buried there. The cemetery was restored as a community project. We will meet in the morning and carpool or vanpool over there. We can go to the wharf in Monterey for lunch. The Customs House has a story of the rancho days.
  • Mike, Kitty, and Greg passed the test to get a County driver's license. They can drive park vans.
  • Kim Gardner wrote a document about how to turn an idea into a park project, using the volunteer form.
  • Greg said that the Coyote Peak sign got scratched.
  • Greg said that the wildlife sanctuary sign at the hairpin curve on Bernal Road at the entrance to the park should be moved closer to the Heaton Moor.
  • There is graffiti on the rocks by the falls at the end of the nature trail.
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   Created 6/16/16  by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park