Berkeley Meadow rebooted: The wildest place in town
By Jim Rosenau
Thursday April 14, 2011
Wildflowers in the Berkeley Meadow. All photos by Sean Gin
In 1961, the Oakland Tribune reported that the city of Berkeley planned to fill another 2,000 acres of shoreline for development, including building an airport. The story prompted Berkeleyans Sylvia McLaughlin, Kay Kerr and Esther Gulick to call a meeting with local conservation groups and found the Save San Francisco Bay Association (now Save The Bay), one of the earliest and most successful regional environmental organizations in the world. (For those of you keeping ...
EGRET Evicted from Building in Berkeley’s Aquatic Park (News Analysis)
By Joe Eaton, with Charlotte Perry-Houts
Berkeley Daily PLanet
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Nothing brightens the holiday season quite like an eviction.
This Monday afternoon, Mark Liolios, founder of the Aquatic Park Environmental Greening, Restoration, and Education Team (EGRET), locked up the Cabin, also known as the Model Boat Building, the structure he and his environmental stewardship group have been using as an interpretive center. The Berkeley Parks and Recreation Department had demanded that EGRET and its sponsoring organization Berkeley Partners for Parks ...
Richard Goldman, S.F. philanthropist, dies at 90
By Carolyne Zinko, San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Richard Goldman, a philanthropist whose annual environmental prize is considered one of the world's top ecological awards, died Monday of natural causes at his home in San Francisco. He was 90.
Mr. Goldman and his wife, Rhoda, dispensed hundreds of millions of dollars in support of a variety of charitable causes in the Bay Area and internationally through the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund they started in 1951. In 1989, the couple created the global Goldman Environmental Prize for grassroots ...
Richmond casino deal by environmentalists, tribe
Tribe, developer, environmental groups announce major shoreline deal
By Carolyn Jones
Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Richmond will get a Bay Trail extension and hundreds of acres of open space as part of a sweeping deal struck Wednesday between environmental groups and a tribe that hopes to build a $1 billion casino resort at Point Molate.
The agreement, which stems from a 2008 lawsuit filed by Citizens for East Shore Parks and other environmental groups, calls for at least $43 million in open space acquisitions and sets aside two-thirds - 180 ...
MAJOR STEP TOWARDS PRESERVING RICHMOND SHORELINE FOREVER
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 20, 2010
Contact: Robert Cheasty, President, Citizens for East Shore Parks
Patricia Jones, Executive Director, Citizens for East Shore Parks
(510) 524–5000 (office) pjones@eastshorepark.org www.eastshorepark.org
MAJOR STEP TOWARDS PRESERVING RICHMOND SHORELINE FOREVER
Agreement secures $48–68 million for habitat restoration, park creation and trails
Richmond, Calif. - A pioneering collaboration and Shoreline Protection Agreement ("Agreement") has been reached between local environmental organizations and the Guidiville ...
Tribe, developer, environmental groups announce major shoreline deal
By John Simerman
Contra Costa Times
Wednesday October 20, 2010
RICHMOND -- An American Indian tribe and the developer of a planned billion-dollar casino resort at Point Molate have reached a deal with local environmental groups that calls for at least $48 million to buy and protect prime shoreline if a gambling emporium rises.
The deal ends years of litigation against a plan to build an Indian casino, along with a hotel, convention center, retail mall and nightclubs, on former Navy land along the Bay near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. And it comes less than ...
Endorsements 2010: Yes on 21; parks need a stable source of funds
Thursday, Sep. 16, 2010
California's 278 state parks are undisputed treasures. Anyone who has soaked in the pools of Grover Hot Springs State Park or camped on the beach of Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park or seen the spring wildflowers at Anzo-Borrego Desert State Park can testify to the splendor of these public lands.
On Nov. 2, California voters must be prepared to answer two questions in regard to their state parks:
• Is the state providing adequate support for its state parks system?
• If not, does Proposition 21 offer a reasonable and fair funding ...
NEW NAME FOR EAST BAY OPEN SPACE ORGANIZATION!
Albany – In order to better reflect the current focus of its work CESP, which formerly stood for Citizens for the Eastshore State Park, will now stand for Citizens for East Shore Parks.
For decades, CESP worked actively with fellow community residents, with agencies, and with local and state representatives, to establish the Eastshore State Park. On December 6, 2002, that goal was successfully achieved. Since then, CESP has been working actively with park agencies, local representatives and organizations to ensure that the General Plan for the Eastshore State Park, ...
North Richmond rezoning could bring development to shoreline open space
September - October, 2010
The North Richmond Shoreline, from the West County Landfill to Point Pinole Regional Shoreline, is a large contiguous block of Bay wetlands and coastal prairie. It deserves to be preserved in unified public ownership, but soon the Richmond City Council may take an action that would greatly perhaps prohibitively raise the costs of acquiring these lands.
The East Bay Regional Park District has owned Point Pinole since the 1960s. In 2006 it voted to acquire most of Breuner Marsh through eminent domain, over the fierce opposition of the ...
Broad Coalition of Supporters Qualify State Parks Initiative for November Ballot
June 10, 2010
Sacramento, CA - California Secretary of State Debra Bowen today qualified the State Parks and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund Act of 2010, a measure that will provide a stable and adequate funding source to keep state parks open, for the Nov. 2 statewide ballot. With passage of the initiative, not only will state parks have a long-term funding solution, but also important General Fund dollars will be made available for other vital needs.
A wide-ranging coalition that includes business, public health, education, labor, entertainment, public safety, ...