A wealth of June 11 events with BPFP partner groups

June 11’s schedule of fun outdoor events highlight that many ways that BPFP and its partner groups contribute to Berkeley’s culture:

BPFP’s longtime president, John Steere, leads a short, level walk on the Santa Fe Right of Way in North Berkeley, 10 AM – noon. He will highlight how what started as an 1800s railway headed for the mines became a showcase for citizen involvement and creativity. After the Santa Fe Railroad failed to make it an industrial corridor, the former railway became home to pioneering community gardens, ecological living, and creek restoration projects. BPFP partner groups Berkeley Path Wanderers and Friends of Five Creeks worked years to open it and make it appealing to pedestrians and bicyclists. New neighborhood groups, including Friends of West Street Path, are working to make it more still welcoming. Info and signup for the Berkeley Historical Society walk here.

The 3rd Annual California Indian Arts and Culture festival is scheduled 11 AM – 5 PM in Berkeley’s Ohlone Park, with traditional dancing, crafts, cooking, games, storytelling and more. The Park exists because Berkeley citizens voted to pay to have BART build underground, and then rebelled against having a community college on the site. In recent years. Friends of Ohlone Park (FOOP), one of BPFP’s founding partner groups, has worked diligently to refresh and refurbish the park and complete a Native American-focused garden around its mural of Ohlone culture, now a magnet for Indigenous activities.

Info on the event here, on the website of sponsoring California Institute for Community Art, and Nature.

Friends of Five Creeks holds its monthly volunteer event 10 AM – noon on Codornices Creek at 8th Street . Volunteers of all ages will remove weeds to continue reviving a formerly trashed meadow that will eventually link the final leg in a 1/3 mile creekside trail along our area’s only trout stream. This is another in more than 20 years of projects revitalizing this creek for people and wildlife — starting with building an observation railing at the Ohlone Greenway. Information here.

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.

Celebrate Earth Day Sat., Apr. 22, with Wild and Scenic Film Festival

Celebrate the Earth live and in person with stunning environmental and outdoor adventure films — an on-tour selection of audience favorites from this year’s full Wild and Scenic Film Festival. View films 7-9 PM at Berkeley’s Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way (doors open at 6:30). Tickets also let you stream films on demand through April 26.

Info and tickets here. The event is organized by, and benefits, the Citizens Climate Lobby.

Scroll down for more Earth Day events!


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.