Orchard restoration underway at Jack London State Park

A state park orchard got a bit of a makeover last week, as volunteers planted apple and pear trees in the Jack London State Historic Park, where decades-old trees have been lost over the years.

According to park officials, the saplings were caged to protect them from deer and other wildlife and labeled with information including which tree the grafting scion was taken from, the specific type of fruit and the year planted. The trees all received a top layer of mulch, and a healthy dose of water, added park officials.

The orchard fell into Jack London Park hands in 2002, when 600 acres of land – including the over 100-year-old orchard of peach, pear, apple, cherry and prune plums – was transferred from the Sonoma Developmental Center to the California Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) to become part of the adjacent Jack London State Historic Park. The recreation department and the National Park Service partnered on the development of restoration plans for the landscape, so that, as park officials described in a press release, “future generations could experience what a pre-World War II orchard would have been like.”

In 2015, volunteers from Jack London Park Partners, a local nonprofit which advocates for the park, began to implement the restoration plan. Working with state park officials, the volunteers began clearing competing vegetation, pruning deadwood, bracing and thinning fruit, mulching and watering the trees with ongoing plans to remove harmful invasive species.

With the help of arborists, cuttings were taken from the historic trees, to be nurtured by staff at Quarryhill Botanical Gardens.

In 2017, Jack London Park Partners volunteers planted the first seedling from a cutting taken from the last surviving quince tree; in 2018 and spring of 2019, two cherry and 14 apple trees were planted.

On Nov. 6, 17 employees of nearby Kenwood Winery joined park volunteers in helping plant an additional 37 seedlings.

Public access to the orchard is on foot by taking the Lake Service Road to Vineyard Trail, on to Plum Tree Trail in Jack London State Historic Park.

More information at jacklondonpark.com.