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Community Corner

Albany "Green Team" Takes on Albany Hill

The city's newest volunteer group is helping protect natural habitat in Albany and planting new gardens. Saturday, members cleared the way for oak trees and other flora on Albany Hill to flourish.

Scotch broom grows aggressively wherever it takes root, as can be seen on . But the fast-sprouting plants with little green leaves and occasional yellow flowers aren't native to California, so they change the soil’s chemistry, making it harder for other plants to grow. That’s why broom, aka cytisus scoparius, brought here decades ago as an ornamental plant, is classified by California as a noxious invasive species.

On Saturday, of volunteers climbed onto Albany Hill to halt the assault. Armed with gardening gloves and a few weed trimmers, a hearty band of six pulled out hundreds of Scotch broom sprouts on the north side of the hill.

This new ecological team, organized by the city's Environmental Resources Division and the Recreation & Community Services Department, volunteers around town to protect wildlife habitat and natural areas. On Earth Day in April, it . In June, team members in one of the plots surrounding Albany Middle School. The team is part of Albany's

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“Gardening is very therapeutic,” said volunteer Sue Lai, as she pulled out Scotch broom on Saturday morning, “but I wish more people were here. Taking care of Albany Hill is for everybody’s good.”

Avihai Guzy and Jean Poulter agreed, the latter saying she has treasured Albany Hill since she was a girl, and passed by on road trips between Menlo Park and Sacramento.

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Guzy, a bio-engineering student at University of California, San Diego, said it's a great place to volunteer while he's home in Albany for the summer.

Erica Petrofsky, with the city’s Environmental Resources division, organized the Green Team. An intern with the city, Petrofsky explained why the group tackled the Scotch broom on Albany Hill as one of its projects.

“Non-native plants can overtake space more quickly than native plants and crowd them out. They grow quicker than native plants because their natural predators and competitors are not here,” she said.

“Also, Scotch broom is a nitrogen-fixing plant. It takes it from the air and releases nitrogen into the soil, and so changes the whole soil conditions for native plants,” she continued.

The Scotch broom apparently was introduced to Albany decades ago when someone thought it would be ornimental.

“We’re trying to get more people” involved in the team, said Petrofsky, as she balanced on a hillside, tackling broom plants while watching her industrious volunteers do the same. 

“ is a great way to get to know our local plant species, be outdoors and get to know people,” she said.

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