Living Landscape The Extraordinary Rise of the East Bay Regional Park District and How It Preserved 100,000 Acres

Living Landscape traces the East Bay Regional Park District’s 75-year history, from its beginnings in the depths of the Great Depression when voters approved a tax hike, to its establishment as the largest and most innovative regional park agency in the United States. The agency’s unwavering focus and sophisticated methods have allowed it to preserve 100,000 acres of public parklands in 65 parks throughout San Francisco Bay Area’s Alameda and Contra Costa counties (the East Bay). The book explores the politically charged annexation of new territory in 1964, board members whose controversial tactics nearly brought the agency to its knees, the clashes of "pure" open-space advocates with those favoring increased public access to parks, and many more pivotal moments. Set against the coming of age of the environmental movement, the book reveals how these extraordinary events unfolded, through the eyes and words of people behind the scenes. Living Landscape informs and surprises readers interested in the environment, California history, politics, law, or simply a good story.

Laura McCreery is a writer and oral historian specializing in California politics and government. Her news, feature, travel, and opinion articles have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the East Bay Monthly, and the in-flight magazine Reno Air Approach, where she was a contributing writer, as well as in such journals as California Legal History, Oregon Historical Quarterly, and California Historian.

She currently directs the California Supreme Court Oral History Project at UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies. Her articles and oral histories are represented in many library collections, including the New York Public Library, the California State Library, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and the University of Washington.