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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.

P.O. Box 2768, Oakland, CA 94602 ~ ~ Google Phone: 510-473-6567

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Join the Friends today!interpretive sign

By supporting 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. Past 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 
    • Return Arts to the Park

Volunteers are always needed! 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

 

Memorial Bench Honoring Dylan Facente Chin

Joaquin Miller Park is now home to a new bench next to the Pyramid to Moses. The bench was a generous donation to the park from the Facente Chin family in memory of their young son. Dylan was a 9-year old boy who loved JM Park.  He spent much of the pandemic lockdown exploring its trails, mountain biking, playing football in the field and of course climbing the pyramid and waiting for lizards. Dylan was happiest outside and had an early love of reptiles and bugs. Here he got to be with his best friend Miles– the bench is a tribute to their cherished adventures and friendship. He is deeply missed.

Dylan Facente Chin enjoying Joaquin Miller Park

Dylan’s last visit to Joaquin Miller Park

The next time you visit the pyramid, you can have a seat and either watch the gorgeous view of the bay, or turn to face Joaquin Miller’s stone structure and watch for lizards as Dylan was fond of doing

Dylan & Miles special spot in honor of their friendship, Dylan Facente Chin March 28, 2013 - June 23, 2021

Come Celebrate on Saturday, October 9th at noon!

    Join us for a special celebration on the afternoon of October 9th, 2021 in Joaquin Miller Park!

    A ribbon-cutting ceremony with city officials and the Friends of Joaquin Miller Park at noon will mark the completion of the water feature restoration. As the flow returns to the Woodminister Cascade, our writer in residence, Kristen Caven will lead a sing-along of her soon-to-be-hit song, “Joaquin Miller Went Walkin’.” After that, we’ll head for the Fire Circle for “A Blanket and a Basket of Chow,” a picnic in the meadow or at the tables (bring your own chow!) from 1 to 4 pm.

    From 2 to 3pm, Caven will host a presentation called “From Ina to Ayodele.” CWC writers will read works by historical Club members, and new works of their own, and Oakland’s first poet laureate, Dr. Adoyele “Wordslanger” Nzinga, will read poetry by Ina Coolbrith, Joaquin Miller’s good friend and a guiding spirit of our Club. Coolbrith was not only California’s first poet laureate, but the first poet laureate in the United States.

    This event is free to the public, but you have to bring your own picnic!

    ———————— COVID INFO —————————
     
    Masks and social distancing are recommended!
    By attending this event in the park, you agree to these three things:
    covid agreements

    The Park welcomes our Writer-in-Residence Kristen Caven

    The history of Joaquin Miller Park is deeply intertwined with the California Writers Club, which was formed by civic-minded literary figures who would gather on the land when it belonged to poet Joaquin Miller. CWC, which formed in Oakland in 1909 and was incorporated in 1913, was instrumental in the city’s purchase of Miller’s land to create our unique and spectacular city park. 

    In the 1930s, the CWC helped bring the WPA to Oakland to build various projects, including the Woodminster Theatre and Cascade, which were dedicated in 1941. They planted the “Writers Memorial Grove” to commemorate California Writers who’d met on the lands, including Robert Louis Stevenson, John Steinbeck, and founding members George Sterling and Ina Coolbrith.

    In 2021 the Berkeley Branch of the CWC inaugurated a Writer in Residence program at Joaquin Miller Park. The first of their members to receive this honor is Kristen Baumgardner Caven, a prolific writer and creative who is known in Oakland for her play for her 2020 Virtual Oaktoberfest, The Dirndl Diaspora, The Zorgos Project, and her cartoon history of the successful 1990 student strike at Mills College. Caven is the former president of the Oakland Tech PTSA and CWC Berkeley, and won the Jack London Award for service in 2017. As writer in residence, Caven will work weekly in different spaces in the park. You can follow Kristen’s blog, Walkin’ With Joaquin, and attend her literary events.

    During her residency, Caven will also work on turning her song, Joaquin Miller Went Walkin’, into a children’s book to help kids connect with the spirit of Joaquin Miller and the Park’s ecosystem. You can support Caven’s work with a donation to the California Writer’s Club or FOJMP.

    Join the CWC each October for a gathering of living writers reading historic writers at “A Blanket and a Basket of Chow.” Learn more about the California Writers Club at www.cwc-berkeley.org.

    Cascade Bathroom refreshed by FoJMP Volunteers!

    Painting the Cascade Bathroom

    FoJMP volunteers Steve Kemp and Al Clark power washed and completely repainted the Cascade Bathroom in late July. Oakland Public Works contributed some of the paint and tools for the project. It looks terrific, stop by and check it out!

    This is the first of many projects we have planned for the park.

    Power washing the roof
    More cleaning up
    Finished project looks great

    Learn more about our volunteer opportunities and our future plans on our Park Improvement Plans page.

    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.