CESP Accomplishments

  • Acres Protected - 1800
  • Miles of Shoreline Park Created - 8.5
  • Years of leadership - 34
  • Park named after CESP Co-Founder Sylvia McLaughlin - 2012

Bay Nature: How the Eastshore State Park Became a Park for the People

Bay Nature article from 2017 celebrates the history of McLaughlin Eastshore State Park. Click here to read the article.

Our Mission

The mission of Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP) is to create a necklace of shoreline parks from the Oakland Estuary to the Carquinez Strait.

CESP works to conserve natural resources and wildlife habitat and to secure public access to shoreline open space along our magnificent East Bay shoreline.

Our Resilient Shoreline Program addressing sea rise and the effects of climate change is a natural extension of our mission.

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Point Molate

Our Programs

Establishing a Resilient Shoreline

We are working with people, elected officials and other organizations to inform the public about sea-level rise and to find practical green infrastructure solutions that will prevent destruction to homes and businesses in communities along the East Shore of the Bay. Learn what we've done in the cities of Oakland, Richmond and Berkeley, and what we are planning to do in Albany.

Completing McLaughlin Eastshore State Park

CESP continues to work to complete MESP as outlined in the General Plan for this magnificent waterfront park.

Expanding the Park through Richmond

Richmond is home to 32 miles of shoreline, the most of any city in the San Francisco Bay Area. CESP continues to play an active role in what is being planned for Pt. Molate, and the south and north shoreline, and to monitor the identified toxic sites and the critical Breuner Marsh area.

The event was sponsored by California State Parks Foundation and presented by PG&E. Our community partner, The Watershed Project, led a coastal cleanup. Additional partners were Clif Bar Family Foundation, East Bay Regional Park District, and the City of Albany. Thank you to all and to the 300 attendees who assisted with cleanup and sea rise event.

Special appreciation to:

GROUNDWORKS Office, a Berkeley based landscape architecture and urban design firm, for the powerful image simulation of the “new” Albany shoreline.

Our rousing speakers included:

Albany Mayor Peggy McQuaid;

State Senator Nancy Skinner;

Kathy Kay, PG&E VP Business Technology;

Shirley Dean, CESP President;

Jeremy Lowe, Lead Scientist at SF Estuary Institute;

Josh Bradt, SF Estuary Partnership;

The Watershed Project; and

Robert Cheasty, CESP Executive Director

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Our Mission

The mission of Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP) is to create a necklace of shoreline parks from the Oakland Estuary to the Carquinez Strait.

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