A Social History of Lake Merritt!

We’ll start at the rooftop garden of the Oakland museum (no entrance fee required), where we’ll get a good overview of the Lake and an introduction to Lake history. From there we’ll walk along Oak St./Lakeside Dr. to Grand Ave. This stretch includes both the oldest and the newest buildings on the Lake plus a few other surprises. Over the last 150 years the Lake has oscillated between jewel and sewer. We’ll try to recreate a few snapshots in time to see how the attitudes and technologies of the day influenced the wildlife of the lake. We’ll end with a glimpse into the future with the completion of projects under measure DD.

Dr Dianne Fristrom, the walk leader, is a retired biologist from UC Berkeley and a natural history docent at the Oakland museum. She and her husband moved to Oakland in 2000 to a condominium on Lakeside Drive. The new location inspired an interest in birding – starting with learning to identify the Lake’s waterfowl. More recently she has focussed on learning about the social history of Lake Merritt.

Wild Oakland is a 100% Do-It-Yourself volunteer organization, from the Guiding Committee to the walk leaders. All people involved in this project donate their time because of a shared passion for ecology and education. Our mission is to provide free, fun, relevant, and commitment-free environmental education to busy urbanites.

The walks are geared towards adults and teens, but we encourage parents to bring their young children even if some information may be over their heads!

See you at the walk!