Dr. Aurelia Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park [1] | |
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Location | Oakland |
Coordinates | 37°48′48.8″N122°09′57.3″W / 37.813556°N 122.165917°W |
Area | 1,830 acres (7,400,000 m2) |
Opened | 1939 |
Operated by | East Bay Regional Park District |
Dr. Aurelia Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park (formerly known as Redwood Regional Park) [1] is a part of the East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is located in the hills east of Oakland, California. The park contains the largest remaining natural stand of coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) found in the East Bay. The park is part of a historical belt of coast redwood extending south to Leona Canyon Regional Open Space Preserve and east to Moraga. [2]
Redwood forests are more commonly found closer to the coast where the air is cool and humid year-round. In the Bay Area, such forests are found in the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Marin Hills. The unique geographical circumstances of the redwood forest in Redwood Regional Park create coastal conditions. Winds funneled through the Golden Gate flow directly across the Bay and are channeled into the linear valley in which the Montclair District of Oakland is situated. This valley is also well-watered all year round and is protected from extremes of temperature and high winds.
Up to the middle of the 19th century, the bulk of the redwood forest lay in the Redwood Creek valley, with extensions to the surrounding ridges. In 1826 British navy captain Frederick William Beechey used the "Navigation Trees", two particularly tall redwood trees along the ridges, to help them navigate in San Francisco Bay. [3] However, logging from 1845 to 1860 wiped out the original trees, leaving only their stumps. A second logging occurred after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. In this instance the second growth redwoods (approximately 50 years old) as well as the stumps from the first generation trees were logged, the site of which is registered as California Historical Landmark #962. [4] [5] The redwoods contained in today's regional park are third-growth trees, many of which are over 100 years old. Only one old-growth redwood remains in the area, a 93 feet (28 m) tall tree that seems to grow miraculously out of a rock on a cliff face near Merritt College, which may have survived because it was out of reach for loggers. [2] Once home to a grove named for her, the entire park was named for Dr. Aurelia Reinhardt in 2019. [1]
Popular activities for park visitors include picnicking, jogging, hiking, archery, and horseback riding along the 40 miles (64 km) of park trails. [6] Fishing is not allowed inside Redwood Regional Park. The park offers four picnic sites that can accommodate groups of 50 to 150 people. Advance reservations are recommended. These are reservable and accessible to handicapped persons. Some overnight group camping areas are also available. Reservations are required. A play structure for children is a quarter mile down Stream Trail from the Canyon Meadow staging area. [7]
Nature watching is another popular activity. The park is home to rare species, such as the golden eagle and the Alameda striped racer. More common fauna are deer, raccoons, rabbits, and squirrels. [7]
The trails are sometimes closed due to severe weather or effects from it or the general maintenance of the park. [7]
In 1989 Chabot Observatory & Science Center was formed as a Joint Powers Agency with the City of Oakland, the Oakland Unified School District, and the East Bay Regional Park District, in collaboration with the Eastbay Astronomical Society, and in 1992 was recognized as a nonprofit organization. The project was led by Chabot's Executive Director and CEO, Dr. Michael D. Reynolds, breaking ground for the facility in October 1996 with construction of the new 88,000-square-foot (8,200 m2) Science Center beginning in May 1998.
In January 2000, anticipating the opening of the new facility, the organization changed its name from Chabot Observatory & Science Center to Chabot Space & Science Center. The new name was chosen to better convey the organization's focus on astronomy and the space sciences, while communicating both the broad range and the technologically advanced nature of programs available in the new Science Center.
Opened August 19, 2000, the Chabot Space & Science Center is an 86,000-square-foot (8,000 m2), state-of-the-art science and technology education facility on a 13-acre (53,000 m2) site in the hills of Oakland, California, adjoining the western boundary of Redwood Regional Park. [lower-alpha 1]
Alameda County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and 21st most populous nationally. The county seat is Oakland. Alameda County is in the San Francisco Bay Area, occupying much of the East Bay region.
The East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) is a special district 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 regional park district in the United States. The administrative office is located in Oakland.
Canyon, formerly known as Sequoya, is an unincorporated community located near the border of Contra Costa and Alameda counties, in the U.S. state of California. It is situated between Oakland and Moraga in the San Francisco Bay Area. The community is named for its location in the upper canyon of San Leandro Creek along the eastern slope of the Berkeley Hills. Canyon lies at an elevation of 1138 feet.
The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. With a population of roughly 2.5 million in 2010, it is the most populous subregion in the Bay Area.
Montclair is a hillside neighborhood in Oakland, California, United States. Montclair is located along the western slope of the Oakland Hills from a valley formed by the Hayward Fault to the upper ridge of the hills.
Anthony Chabot Regional Park is a regional park in Oakland, Alameda County, California in the United States. It is part of the East Bay Regional Park District system, and covers 5,067 acres (2,051 ha) in the San Leandro Hills adjacent to Oakland, San Leandro and Castro Valley. Popular activities include hiking, cycling and horseback riding. A gun range operated by the Chabot Gun Club was shut down in 2016, following complaints about pollution.
Chabot Space and Science Center, located in Oakland, California, is a center for learning in Earth and space science, which features interactive exhibits, planetariums, a large screen theater, hands-on activities, and three powerful telescopes.
Anthony Chabot was a nineteenth-century businessman and entrepreneur, notable for his contribution to developing hydraulic mining and for building water systems, especially in the Bay Area, so much that he became known as the "Water King".
Lake Chabot is a man-made lake covering 317 acres (1.3 km2) in Alameda County, California, United States. Part of the lake lies within Oakland city limits, but most of it lies in unincorporated Castro Valley, just east of San Leandro. It was formed by the damming of San Leandro Creek. The lake was completed in 1875 to serve as a primary source of water for the East Bay.
San Leandro Creek is a 21.7-mile-long (34.9 km) year-round natural stream in the hills above Oakland in Alameda County and Contra Costa County of the East Bay in northern California.
Cull Canyon Regional Recreation Area (CCRRA) is a regional park located in Castro Valley, Alameda County, California. It is part of the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) system.
Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve is a 241 acres (0.98 km2) regional park and nature reserve in the Oakland Hills, in the eastern East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area of California. It is within Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. It is a park within the East Bay Regional Parks District system. The Preserve is named after the California Huckleberry which grows abundantly within its habitat.
Roberts Regional Recreation Area (RRRA) is an area adjacent to Redwood Regional Park located in Alameda County next to Oakland, CA and is part of the East Bay Regional Parks (EBRPD). It is across Skyline Drive from the City of Oakland's Joaquin Miller Park. Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp. adopted Roberts Park in 1979, under the newly-developed Adopt-a-Park program, which promised continued funding. This was the first park in EBRPD to be so adopted.
Oakland Hills is an informal term used to indicate the city neighborhoods lying within the eastern portion of Oakland, California. The northernmost neighborhoods were devastated by the Oakland firestorm of 1991.
Sequoia sempervirens is the sole living species of the genus Sequoia in the cypress family Cupressaceae. Common names include coast redwood, coastal redwood and California redwood. It is an evergreen, long-lived, monoecious tree living 1,200–2,200 years or more. This species includes the tallest living trees on Earth, reaching up to 115.9 m (380.1 ft) in height and up to 8.9 m (29 ft) in diameter at breast height. These trees are also among the longest-living trees on Earth. Before commercial logging and clearing began by the 1850s, this massive tree occurred naturally in an estimated 810,000 ha along much of coastal California and the southwestern corner of coastal Oregon within the United States. Being the tallest tree species, with a small range and an extremely long lifespan, many redwoods are preserved in various state and national parks; many of the largest specimens have their own official names.
The history of Oakland, a city in the county of Alameda, California, can be traced back to the founding of a settlement by Horace Carpentier, Edson Adams, and Andrew Moon in the 19th century. The area now known as Oakland had seen human occupation for thousands of years, but significant growth in the settlements that are now incorporated into the city did not occur until the Industrial Revolution. Oakland was first incorporated as a town in 1852.
Blossom Rock was a serious navigational hazard to sailing ships entering or leaving San Francisco Bay in the 19th century. It was formally reported by Captain F. Beechey of the Royal Navy ship HMS Blossom in 1827.
Old Survivor, also known as the Grandfather Tree, is the last remaining old-growth coastal redwood of the East Bay Redwoods that once populated the Oakland Hills in California.
The East Bay Redwoods are an isolated population of coast redwoods that exist a considerable distance inland from the coast in the Berkeley Hills in western Contra Costa County, California. Stands of Sequoia sempervirens, the Coast Redwood, occur on the west coast from Big Sur to extreme southwestern Oregon. Their preferred habitat is the temperate and perennially foggy western slopes of the California Coast Ranges; a reliance on marine climates generally restricts their range to a narrow band along the central and northern coasts of California.
Redwood Creek is an approximately 4 mile-long perennial creek in Contra Costa and Alameda Counties, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is named for the East Bay Redwoods forest where it originates.
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