East Bay Regional Parks District

The Report on Proposed Park Reservations for East Bay Cities (California) was co-authored by the Olmsted Brothers (Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. and George Gibbs), and Ansel F. Hall of the National Park Service in 1930, after a group of San Francisco East Bay community members and alumni of UC Berkeley, put together the funds to survey and create a plan for pristine surplus watershed lands in the East Bay hills in an effort to save them from development. This “Olmsted-Hall Report” envisioned a 10,000-acre park system extending nearly 22 miles along the hill ridges that would be accessible to the metropolitan cities below. The Olmsted-Hall Report played a pivotal role in a four-year campaign to create “parks for the people” under one of the first regional park agencies in the country. In 1934, in the midst of the Great Depression, the East Bay Regional Park District’s establishment was successfully approved by voters.

Almost ninety years later, the East Bay Regional Park District has expanded to over 126,000 acres – that includes the 10,000 acres from the Olmsted Hall Report, 73 parks, over 1,250 miles of trails and 55 miles of bay and delta shoreline. The regional parks are ideal for healthful recreation and environmental education. The Park District works to acquire, manage, and preserve natural and cultural resources for all to enjoy and protect.