Lots of spring events ahead
Spring is a great time to connect with parks and nature. Volunteer or celebrate for Earth Day (mostly Apr. 20) — see the list of events here! Document and learn about local plants and animals as part of City Nature Challenge (Apr. 26 – May 3). All ages can celebrate and learn about the Berkeley’s Bay Festival Apr. 27! Enjoy varied walks and more at the annual Hillside Festival in El Cerrito’s Hillside Natural Area May 4-5.
Celebrate Earth Day, Sat., Apr. 20, in two ways at Berkeley’s Brower Center
From 2-5 PM, Citizens Climate Lobby hosts a FREE Home Electrification Fair at the Brower Center, 2150 Allston, near downtown Berkeley BART. Experts will answer questions about transitioning from gas to electric. Where do I start? Must I upgrade my electrical panel? What are the available financial incentives?
Info and registration at
www.tinyurl.com/electrifyberk
From 7-9 PM, enjoy audience favorites from the 2024 Wild and Scenic Film Festival, the nation’s premier environmental and adventure film festival. These films explore nature, community activism, adventure, conservation, water, energy and climate change, wildlife, environmental justice, agriculture, and more. They offer stellar filmmaking, beautiful cinematography, and first-rate storytelling.
Info and tickets at www.tinyurl.com/wsff24. Get a $5 discount on tickets with code CCLALA.
Remembering Brad Stewart
Berkeley parks and open spaces have lost a valued friend and benefactor with the May 21 sudden passing of Brad Stewart, secretary of the Berkeley Partners for Parks Board and a co-organizer and active leader in West Berkeley’s Schoolhouse Creek Common and Friends of West Street Park. Whether digging weeds and promoting pollinators on the Santa Fe Right of Way, or writing clear and detailed notes and organizing Zoom meetings, Brad was unfailingly cheerful, warm, patient, and generous. He is much mourned and will be greatly missed.
Ruth Armstrong (Moskovitz), Berkeley Path Wanderers founder
Ruth Armstrong (Moskovitz), artist and longtime park activist who sparked the idea for and co-founded Berkeley Path Wanderers Assn., died Jan. 24 at age 71. Ruth had been influential in Codornices, LaLoma, and Live Oak Parks, helping design and mobilize volunteers to build playgrounds. In 1997, she posted a notice at the North Branch Public Library seeking people interested in working for Berkeley’s historic path network, much of it created in the days of streetcars but neglected or left unbuilt as automobiles took over.
Ruth and three women who responded — Jacque Ensign, Pat DeVito, and Eleanor Hall Gibson — founded Berkeley Path Wanderers Assn. BPWA, a partner group of Berkeley Partners for Parks, went on to form a productive partnership with the city in repairing and putting signs on paths; create a best-selling path map now in its ninth edition; lead hundreds of walks, and marshal thousands of volunteers who have cleared brush, installed steps, and more, making it possible to use dozens of previously unusable or dangerous paths.
In 1998, the group’s 20th Anniversary, the Berkeley City Council recognized BPWA’s contributions to enjoying nature, healthy exercise, and potential emergency evacuation. In January 2021, the Berkeley City Council named paths for each of the four BPWA founders. Ruth Armstrong Path is the pedestrian/bicycle continuation of Walnut Street between Hearst and Berkeley Way.
