With its mix of homes, parks, and some large undeveloped lots in steep terrain, Shepherd Canyon is a big target of Oakland's fuel-reduction efforts. Since the Fire Department's definition of fire-safe seems to be bare, scraped earth, the effects are considerable.
The city streets listed in the descriptions below can be found on this topo map.
This steep hillside lies above a small year-round creek near the intersection of Escher/Westover/Bagshotte. The clearcut area continues uphill behind the bay tree, and farther up Bagshotte Street to the right. The drain at the edge of the road carries the small creek under Bagshotte into Shepherd Canyon Park, and eventually into Shepherd Creek.
This hillside once had a lot of good native vegetation, and a fearsome invasion of Cape Ivy. The brown clumps are/were Swordferns. I know there were some large Pink-flowering currants, because I picked a lot of Cape Ivy off one by the road last summer.
I pulled another bagful of small Cape Ivy sprouts the day I took this picture. It sure comes back fast.
All or most of this property is owned by the city.
Here's another spot on the same property where the steep hillside apparently had a small landslide sometime in the past. In addition to the exposed tree roots, there's the big tuber of a manroot sitting exposed near the big log. Healthy looking Pampas Grass clump, huh?
In order to learn from our mistakes, we must admit that mistakes were made. Clearcutting the undergrowth on a steep slope like this is most obviously a mistake. Doing again after a slide, in the same spot, and on adjacent slopes that are just as steep is most obviously blindness to consequences.
Up Bagshotte from the storm drain, that steep hillside has been cleared, too. There are a number of small slides and a few inches of rock and clay on the road, heading toward the storm drain with each rain.
This tree is leaning already, with some of its roots exposed.
From Bagshotte, I turned left onto Chelton and then onto Girvin Street to look at the top edge of the property. It's a gully, with scraped-bare slopes on both sides.
There's a second small creek crossing under Girvin, a bit further on. Here's looking uphill from Girvin. The woody debris in the streambed is probably an attempt to slow erosion. Again, the storm drain carries silt and rock into the creek system.
The steep hillsides above and below Girvin Drive have the closely-shaved understory treatment, too. There's so much mud accumulated on the edge of the road that there's a mini-wetland developing in the muck. Here's one of the storm drains on Girvin.
From Girvin Street, I went back onto Chelton, and turned left onto Beaconsfield. At the bottom of the hill, Smiling Dog and I explored the little park there. These hillsides also had the understory clearcut. The grass in the open sunny areas is just growing back.
Here's the creek there, in one of the spots where it has daylighted itself. You can see a piece of the former culvert behind the tree. As it carves its streambed, it's contributing a lot of silt.
I took Keswick Court - an amazingly narrow little street back to Chelton. Just a bit downhill, at the Ascot intersection, there's a weird wall that's painted with various messages. Here's some of the eroded material on its way downstream.