East Bay Dinner

"The Mount Diablo Grand Loop: the hunt for Brewer, Buckwheat, and Bowerman"

Thursday, December 1, no-host cocktails/social hour - 6 pm, dinner - 7:00, program - 8:00, Berkeley Yacht Club on the Berkeley Marina, one block north of the west end of University Avenue (ample free parking is available in the Marina parking lots).

On May 29, 1862, William Brewer of the Whitney Geological Survey was the first person to document the Mount Diablo buckwheat, which he found on the mountain's eastern foothills on John Marsh's rancho. He and Josiah Whitney believed that Mount Diablo was the key to understanding California's geology. In those early years the two men witnessed early tourism and mining booms, as well as land speculation and development in the area.

Seventy years later, in 1932, Mary Bowerman, a botany student at the University of California at Berkeley, began studies which would convince her too of the mountain's importance. Her research helped lay the groundwork for Diablo's preservation. Ironically, it was Bowerman who in 1936 was believed to be the last person to see the buckwheat alive.

Until the mid 1960s Contra Costa County had just one significant park - 6,000-acre Mount Diablo State Park. Mary Bowerman recognized the importance of Mount Diablo for many years, and in 1971 she co-founded the organization called Save Mount Diablo. For the past 34 years Save Mount Diablo has worked with agencies, individuals, and property developers to expand Mount Diablo State Park and to help create nineteen more Diablo parks, totaling 88,000 acres.

It is significant that seven of the parks were created or opened in just the past 10 years. These parks include Round Valley, Brushy Peak, and Vasco Caves Regional Preserves, the Los Vaqueros watershed, and Cowell Ranch State Park, the remnant of John Marsh's rancho, where the buckwheat was originally discovered.

In 1994 Save Mount Diablo created the 30-mile Diablo Trail, which crosses six parks. Next year the organization will publish a map of an extended route - a 60-mile "Diablo Grand Loop" - that will be established across three more preserves if two small gaps can be acquired.

Please join us and Seth Adams as he shows images and leads you through the mountain's natural and cultural history, shows you some of the characters who have been drawn to Diablo, and reveals the spectacular new areas that have been protected in recent years.

You will be surprised to learn that the buckwheat that Bowerman thought became extinct 70 years ago, has survived - on land preserved by Save Mount Diablo. This discovery occurred just two months before Bowerman passed away this past Aug. 21.

Seth Adams is director of land programs at Save Mount Diablo. Hired in 1988, he was SMD's first professional staff. His work includes responsibilities related to land acquisition, land-use planning, land stewardship, grassroots activism, legislation, and public policy. He has succeeded in preserving thousands of acres of threatened habitat throughout the East Bay through acquisition and grassroots advocacy, and he has been instrumental in the creation of new recreational trails and in the reintroduction of peregrine falcons to Mount Diablo.

Founder and vice-president of the California Water Policy Group, Adams was also a founding member of the Buckhorn Canyon Preservation Council. He is a former member of the East Bay Regional Park District Park Advisory Committee and of the PAC's Budget Subcommittee; a former Political Committee member of the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club; an Advisory Board member of the Muir Heritage Land Trust, the Green Media Alliance, BayAreaSprawl.Com, and Close To Home (a non-profit which organizes year-long series of lectures and hikes in the East Bay); a member of the Northern California Land Trust Council and the Bay Area Open Space Council.

He has conducted or been involved in a variety of political campaigns and referendums throughout Contra Costa County and the East Bay. He received the John Muir Conservation Award from the John Muir Memorial Association in 2000, the Greenbelt Alliance's Stars of the Greenbelt award in 2001, and a Conservation Medal from the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 2001 Save Mount Diablo honored him with the Mountain Saver award for lifetime achievement.

An avid hiker, runner, cyclist, and weight-lifter, he is also an amateur historian concentrating on the history of Mount Diablo and surrounding open spaces.

Dinner is $22, which includes tax and tip. To make a reservation, send your check payable to "Sierra Club", including your name, number of persons attending, and phone number, to:

Jane Barrett
170 Vicente Road
Berkeley, CA 94705
(510) 845-8055.

Attendance is limited to the first 115 reservations. Reserve early, as these programs do fill up. Reservation deadline is Nov. 21. There is no admittance for program only.