East Bay Regional Park District
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The East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) is a public authority operating in Alameda County and Contra Costa County, California, within the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area. It maintains and operates a system of regional parks which is the largest urban park district in the United States.
The EBRPD was founded in 1934, and acquired its first land two years later, when the East Bay Municipal Utility District sold 2166 acres (876 ha) of its surplus land. By 2004 it was operating a system of 65 parks covering almost 96,000 acres (over 380 km²). Some of these are wilderness areas; others include a variety of visitor attractions, with opportunities for swimming, angling, boating and camping. There are more than 1100 miles (1750 km) of hiking trails within the parks, and in addition nearly 150 miles (250 km) of paved trails through urban areas link parks together.
The parks administered by the EBRPD vary greatly in size and character. Particularly notable are the string of parks along the ridge of the East Bay hills, including Wildcat Canyon Regional Park and Tilden Regional Park, and bay shore parks such as the Point Pinole Regional Shoreline. The district also includes a former farm, a former coal mine, an extinct volcano, and one of the biggest dog-walking parks in the country.
The work of the EBRPD is supported by a voluntary body, the Regional Parks Foundation, which raises funds for the improvement of the parks.
District parks
(incomplete list)
- Castle Rock Park
- Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve
- Coyote Hills Regional Park
- Point Pinole Regional Shoreline
- Redwood Regional Park
- Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve
- Sunol Regional Wilderness
- Temescal Regional Park
- Tilden Regional Park
- Wildcat Canyon Regional Park
External links
- East Bay Regional Park District website (http://www.ebparks.org/)
- Regional Parks Foundation website (http://regparksfdn.org/)
- East Bay Parks At 70 (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/15/MNGA988H5O1.DTL), from the San Francisco Chronicle