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P.O. Box 2768, Oakland, CA 94602 info@fojmp.org Google Phone: 510-473-6567

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We are hikers, mountain bikers, equestrians, dog owners, cross country runners, historians, writers, and neighbors — dedicated to maintaining, preserving and enhancing the rich natural legacy of this area for all residents and visitors of Oakland to enjoy, following in the footsteps of the Lisjan Ohlone people and the late 19th Century poet and environmentalist Joaquin Miller, who lived on and loved this place in times past.

Join the Friends today!interpretive signBy joining Friends of Joaquin Miller Park (FOJMP), your donation is put directly into programs that improve 500-acre Joaquin Miller Park for all its many users. Recent accomplishments include adding the off-leash dog area, rerouting eroding trails, creating a new trail map, and installing interpretive signs and directional trail markers.

FOJMP has a number of programs that might be of interest to you:

• Restore the Woodminster Cascade
• Replanting work at the Fern Ravine wetlands and nearby redwoods
• Renovation of park bathrooms
• Rebuild trails for safety and usability 
• Refresh the Tot Lot and improve its safety
• Reduce fire hazards in the park
• Remove trash and weeds 

Come work with us on these and other projects to make the park more visitor-friendly and help improve trail safety. Check our calendar for workdays, usually the first Saturday of each month.

Once again, welcome, and we’ll see you on the trail, at the dog run, in the theater, or volunteering on a restoration project!



Big Trees Trail

Oakland Zoo animals are helping reduce fire danger in Joaquin Miller Park!

Through cooperative efforts of Friends of Joaquin Miller Park (FoJMP), Friends of Sausal Creek (FOSC), community volunteers, Oakland Public Works and Oakland Zoo staff, invasive and flammable acacia trees are being cut down in Joaquin Miller Park and fed to giraffes and other animals at the Oakland Zoo.

Collecting acacia branches at Joaquin Miller Park for the Oakland Zoo’s animals

Youth Pioneer Safe Work

By John Roberts

[republished with permission from The Buzz of the BTCEB]

BTCEB [Bicycle Trails Council of the East Bay] is helping develop trail work safety practices.  This is in collaboration with the Piedmont High School (PHS) Mountain Bike Team at Joaquin Miller Park (JMP). The focus is learning, more so than the work performed.  Visualizing the initial step is easy, it involves basic social distancing.  But actual trail work efforts can zap this concept.  That is why additional risk mitigation practices were implemented from the ‘get go’.  

Initially the volunteers participated in a live one-hour online class.  In addition, youth athletes as well as their coaches were kept to their riding pods of less than 10 volunteers each. This meant that each individual pod was assigned distinct work days. In turn, the individuals in each pod were broken up into work pairs. The purpose of the two-person teams was for one athlete to supervise trail traffic, while their partner worked.  Not only did this allow for the students to better focus on the quality of their trail work, it also kept one volunteer as a “sentinel” to focus on park visitor traffic, possible working partner hazards, and independent quality control.  For example, when the “monitoring” partners see a park user approaching on the trail, they yell “hiker”, “biker”, or “dog walker”.  This serves as notification to the park user that they can pass, and as appropriate, work is also eased and a focus on social distancing protocols is emphasized. This approach also increases the quality of work as it enhances onsite learning and balances work through alternating partner breaks.

In this manner, the PHS work pods worked on the Big Trees, the Sequoia Bayview, and the Horse Arena connector trails’ drainage via duff removal and ensured these trails have virtually no puddles after the next rain.  This helps keep singletrack narrow, safer, and more sustainable as water will no longer be splashed down trail.  During March, yet another PHS pod provided maintenance to the JMP pump track.  Park users consistently thanked the PHS youth as they went by the work sites.  Accordingly, thank you to all the great stewards that contributed towards this successful trail maintenance effort.  With increased COVID-related trail use, JMP greatly needed the care.