East Bay Parks at 75: Inspriration and Promise

URL
http://www.ebparks.org

About Me

The East Bay Regional Park District, established in 1934, has a fascinating history and an inspiring story. We began with a vision of far-sighted civic leaders seeking to preserve excess watershed land in the Oakland and Berkeley hills. Their goal was to create a park district as part of the community, one that retained a balance of recreation opportunities and wilderness features, ideas unheard of at the time. Members of a grassroots land preservation movement placed a measure on the ballot. During the depths of the Great Depression it passed by a surprising 71 percent and created the first regional park agency in the nation--the East Bay Regional Park District.

Thanks to the support of residents throughout the past seven-and-a-half decades, the East Bay Regional Park District now encompasses all of Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Spanning more than 100,000 acres with 65 parks and over 1,100 miles of trails, our District is the largest regional park district in the nation. True to the ideas of our founders, our mission continues to be providing recreational opportunities, preserving the natural beauty of the land, and protecting wildlife habitat. These parks truly do belong to all of us, and, in celebration, we’ve planned a year’s worth of wonderful events, discoveries, contests and more.