Community mini-project

Three Oaks Park

The Cubberley campus today is a collection of hidden gems waiting to be revealed and appreciated

This mini-proposal is a small community project, aimed at beginning to encourage walking and picnicking, and to beautify what we are calling the North Trail (see map below). The small project can have a strong positive impact on the local neighborhood, Greenmeadow, and the community has shown interest in working to make it happen.

Three oaks area, current and proposed

The ‘Three Oaks Park’ is an especially powerful place to start the process of making our neighborhood more welcoming and useful. The three resident majestic Oaks are native species, left undisturbed from the time before Cubberly Community Center was built, wonderful for sitting under during our typically sunny days, and one of the very few places in Cubberly heavily used by the local indigenous animals. Many people from the shops in Charleston Center express that they would like to have a place to sit outside for lunch.

Currently a vestigial fence splits the park, and barricades are used to stop cars from parking on the soil too much. Our primary aim is to make this copse of native live oaks a beautiful place to see, to relax under and use for picnics.

We would like to add a couple of sitting places, and a ring of young trees that will grow where the canopy shade of the copse will eventually reach, if left undisturbed. Some other native perennials (e.g. ceanothus, ribes, rhamnus, salvia, etc) are planted all along the perimeter. We remove the vestigial fence. Interpretive signage acquaints the visitor with the history, ecology, and cultural aspects of the site.

We can also integrate a patch through to the tennis courts and plant young oaks in strategic locations next to the courts.

Existing Site

We would like to add a couple of sitting places, and a ring of young trees that will grow where the canopy shade of the copse will eventually reach, if left undisturbed. Some other native perennials (e.g. ceanothus, ribes, rhamnus, salvia, etc) are planted all along the perimeter. We remove the vestigial fence. Interpretive signage acquaints the visitor with the history, ecology, and cultural aspects of the site.

We can also integrate a patch through to the tennis courts and plant young oaks in strategic locations next to the courts.

Artist’s concepts of proposed site

In time the area will become a bit more shelter feeling and park-like as the trees and plants mature

Proposed site with ceanothus

This rendering shows alternate use of native purple and cleveland sage and ceanothus