Let us pause for a moment to remember those famous words John F. Kennedy uttered almost exactly 50 years ago, on January 20, 1961, during his Inaugural address. JFK said, “My fellow Bernalians: ask not what Bernal Hill can do for you — ask what you can do for Bernal Hill.”
Okay, so he didn’t quite put it that way. Nevertheless, in that spirit, let us instead recall the words Gabriella West shared yesterday on the Examiner’s community website, bringing news of a volunteer work day on January 16 to do some cleanup and native plant restoration on Bernal Hill:
For years, flyers were posted on the bulletin boards at Bernal Heights Park with a list of work dates for native plant restoration. Now, I’m happy to report that these work dates are continuing, despite the deaths of the couple who organized them for many years. Roland Pitschel, who died in August of 2009 and his wife Barbara, who worked at Strybing Arboretum and who passed away last year, were longtime Bernal Heights residents who were among a group of people involved in the preservation of the park as a natural area in the early 1970s. Their efforts over the years went into removing nonnative species such as fennel, wild radish and other weeds so that the hill could remain in its natural grassland habitat.
For anyone interested in doing some gardening on Bernal Hill in the brisk January weather, the next workday is Sunday, Jan. 16 from 11am-2pm. The traditional meeting place is at the bottom of the road that goes up the hill to the radio tower.
If you can’t make it this month, there’s information on additional volunteer opportunities, here.
Photo: Chris Brennan
Bernalwood 
I took the liberty of creating a Facebook page for Bernal Hill Park where we can share information like this about native plant work or other cleanup efforts. The page will only be useful if it attracts a critical mass of park lovers. One of the first topics that came up was about the native plant restoration work.