Welcome

Aquatic Park EGRET is the stewardship group for the tidal wetlands of Berkeley’s largest city park. Volunteers from the community help us tend native coastal plantings to improve the shoreline of San Francisco Bay for wildlife habitat.

We’re upgrading our web site for 2009. Hope you like the improvements.

Videos of Aquatic Park from YouTube

The following video was posted on YouTube showing some sights at Aquatic Park (watch the bike ride past the egret on the grass):

And here’s one of egrets feeding at the north end:

Berkeley’s waterfront history in maps

Fading image

The image below fades between Berkeley’s waterfront in 1917 and 2009.
Notice that the current east shoreline of Aquatic Park is the historic shoreline of the Bay. Also notice the current railroad line appears in the 1917 map.

Image source:

• Historic Berkeley: University of Texas Library
• Present day: Google Maps

Combined image

Wonderful bird photo album

Obie Gilkerson, a friend of EGRET and photographer extraordinare, has posted an album of photos of birds at Aquatic Park. View it here: http://obiegilkerson.zenfolio.com/p795881642. Click the “Slideshow” button to view all the photos as a slideshow.

Earth Team and Berkeley HS students celebrate Cesar Chavez day

18 “Berkeley Project Month – Greener Berkeley!” volunteers help out.

Eighteen students from UC Berkeley, as part of “Berkeley Project Month – Greener Berkeley!”, spread the wood chips from three piles of mulch around the bases of several shoreline cypress trees planted two years ago by second graders from Rosa Parks Elementary School. After lunch they did trail improvement work, mounding the soil to create a wildlife overlook for park visitors.

Black Pine Circle kids do their part watering and bird watching

Twelve very young students at Black Pine Circle came to the park with their parents on March 13th. They had a great time watching the egrets and herons while they watered the newly planted shoreline trees and cleared a visitor trail along the south side of Middle Pond.

Head-Royce students volunteer to help protect native plants.

Seventh graders from Head-Royce School worked along the southwestern shoreline of the Main Lagoon on March 6th. The twenty-five students, and the teachers and parents who accompanied them, protected the Monterey Cypress at that corner, as well as adjacent native shrubs, by covering the thistles and other invasive weeds with the wood chips from two enormous piles.

USA Service Clean-Up a great success

Over 90 people showed up to help clean and landscape on January 18th.

Photos can be seen here: http://web.mac.com/hoohaus/iWeb/Site/AquaParkCleanUp-PHOTOS.html

Bird watching at Aquatic Park

As a major stop on the Pacific Flyway, Berkeley’s Aquatic Park hosts many migratory birds stopping on their way south. This category will be used to post announcements of migratory birds seen in the park.