Volunteers Needed to Pull Invasive Ivy from Eureka's Sequoia Park Grove

Volunteers armed with supplies provided on-site descended on the Glatt Street fountain at Glatt and T Street last Saturday, March 14, to spend four hours pulling invasive English ivy from the redwood grove at Sequoia Park in Eureka. The event, organized under the banner of the Sequoia Park Ivy League, ran from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in a drop-in format, allowing participants to arrive at any point during the window.

The Sequoia Park Ivy League is a recurring stewardship program, not a one-off cleanup. The North Coast California Native Plant Society lists the group among regional invasive-plant removal efforts, noting that events typically recur on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. throughout the month. The City of Eureka and Sequoia Park Zoo have both hosted calendar listings for the program, with documented events going back to at least September 2024.

"We have our own Ivy League in town and it's not what you think," reads the City of Eureka's event copy. "Instead of hitting the books, we are hitting the park to eradicate invasive ivy from our beloved Redwood forest."

Organizers provide all tools and supplies at the event and offer on-site training, meaning volunteers need no prior experience to participate. The event is family-friendly, though children must be accompanied and managed by a guardian throughout.

The Sequoia Park Zoo has used the program to recruit longer-term volunteer leaders, asking participants at check-in whether they want to take on a more regularly involved role in building and growing the group. Photos on the City of Eureka's website show past participants posing beside large mounds of extracted ivy, offering a concrete measure of the work's visible impact.

For the September 2024 iteration, volunteers who attended were offered a free one-day Sequoia Park Zoo pass, and those who completed all four events during Eureka's September Volunteer Month were entered into a grand prize drawing for a $250 Pierson's Building Center gift card. Whether those incentives apply to the current event cycle was not confirmed.

Anyone interested in future Sequoia Park Ivy League pulls can contact the group directly at sequoia.park.ivy.league@gmail.com or reach the event line at (707) 441-4218. The Sequoia Park Zoo main number is (707) 441-4263, and the zoo is located at 3414 W Street in Eureka. Spanish-language translation services are available for City of Eureka programs by calling 707-441-4144 during municipal reception hours, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at 531 K Street.