Ceremony Saturday Celebrating Naming of McLaughlin Eastshore State Park

Local officials will hold a ceremony Saturday to commemorate the renaming of the Eastshore State Park in honor of Save the Bay co-founder Sylvia McLaughlin, key leader of the successful fight to stop infill of San Francisco Bay.

McLaughlin, 96, has been invited to speak at the ceremony, which will include state Senator Loni Hancock, Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and others from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the University Avenue park entrance in Berkeley.

The park was renamed McLaughlin Eastshore State Park in September last year by the Parks and Recreation Commission. The action capped a park-renaming appeal to the commission in February 2011 and was led by Citizens for East Shore Parks.

The honor also recognized the profound impact of the Save the Bay group, formed by McLaughlin and two other women in 1961 in response to a City of Berkeley plan to double the city's size and tax base by filling in 2,000 acres of the Bay. The other two co-founders, now both deceased, were Kay Kerr of El Cerrito (who was married to UC President Clark Kerr), and Esther Gulick of Berkeley.

Here is a news release about the Saturday ceremony from the East Bay Regional Park District, which oversees the park for the state:

Local Officials to Celebrate Renaming of McLaughlin Eastshore State Park November 16

Sylvia McLaughlin, 96, Invited to Speak

A ceremony to rename McLaughlin Eastshore State Park in honor of community leader and Save the Bay co-founder Sylvia McLaughlin is set for Saturday, November 16, 2013, from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the University Avenue park entrance in Berkeley.

As a tribute to Sylvia McLaughlin’s extensive environmental activism and her strong role in saving the San Francisco Bay, and in recognition of her leadership efforts to help create Eastshore State Park, the California State Legislature, in a bill authored by Assembly Member Nancy Skinner, approved the renaming of Eastshore State Park as the McLaughlin Eastshore State Park.

The event also will celebrate the leadership and community activism that helped to create this beautiful state park treasure. Ms. McLaughlin is on the program to speak, along with Senator Loni Hancock, Assembly Member Nancy Skinner, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, Park District Treasurer Whitney Dotson, and others.

McLaughlin Eastshore State Park is one of the most outstanding achievements in the history of open space protection, resulting from decades of citizen efforts to protect San Francisco Bay as a public open space resource. The 8.5-mile State Park is a recreational facility harmonious with its natural setting. The East Bay Regional Park District manages the park for the state, and owns the property with California State Parks.

The backdrop for this event is Eastshore State Park’s 72-acre Berkeley Meadow where a five year, $6 million restoration project was completed in April 2011. The meadow was once a landfill that has been transformed into wetland habitat, planted with native grasses and scrub species to provide habitat for the white-tailed kite, northern harrier, western burrowing owl and other birds and animals.

About Sylvia McLaughlin

Over the last four decades, Sylvia McLaughlin has been influential in many grassroots ecological efforts to safeguard the San Francisco Bay region, including the co-founding of Save the San Francisco Bay Association in 1961, which was critically involved with protecting 2,000 acres of the Bay from becoming a proposed dumpsite. These grassroots actions subsequently led to the signing of the McAteer-Petris Act of 1965 which mandated the preservation of San Francisco Bay and the protection of the bay from indiscriminate filling. The McAteer-Petris Act also established the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, a state agency entrusted to safeguard the San Francisco Bay.

Continuing her deep regard for the San Francisco Bay, Sylvia subsequently cofounded Citizens for Eastshore State Park (CESP) along with Dwight Steele and many other community volunteers to advocate the creation of a publicly accessible shoreline along the east shore of the Bay.