Natural History Wanderings

from Berkeleyside

Gulick (1911-1995), Kerr (1911-2010) and McLaughlin (1916-2016) were retired homemakers, some of whom could see the Bay from their homes, when they learned about the Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to fill in much of the Bay Area waterfront for commerce.

At that time, much of the Bay Area waterfront was already polluted and included Berkeley’s own municipal dump, now Cesar Chavez Park.

“These retired homemakers were underestimated,” Alexandra said. “They were savvy and did their research and knew how to talk to the press.”

In 1961, the women founded the nonprofit Save the Bay, which continues their environmental work today.

The McLaughlin Eastshore State Park, an 8.5-mile shoreline park, was renamed in honor of McLaughlin in 2012. The park includes 1,833 acres of uplands and tidelands along the waterfronts of Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville, Albany and Richmond.

“If it were not for those three women, our entire region would look completely different,” Alexandra said.