From soil to sea, touring the East Bay with Bioneers
By shaylyn martos
This weekend, environmentalists and Indigenous leaders from across the world are gathering in Berkeley for the 37th annual Bioneers conference. To kickstart the weekend, Bay Area Green Tours hosted a tour of the East Bay.
Singers: Humbly, we walk here. Humbly, we sing here. Humbly, we bless this ground.
It’s early, but the energy is high. Folks are excited to learn more about Oakland urban foodscapes and Berkeley watersheds. Our first stop is West Oakland Farm Park.
Volunteer: We would love to have you as CSA customers, volunteers, donators, anything and all of the above, or just come by and enjoy the scenery.
We’re soon joined by Kanyon Sayers-Roods (Mutsun and Chumash), the Chairwoman of Indian Canyon Nation.
Kanyon Sayers-Roods: As a California Native who hasn’t always been included in the conversation in some of these spaces, I’m so happy to see California Indigenous representation and inclusion.
We grabbed lunch at the Prescott Market, then we bussed to Berkeley to visit the Malcolm X School Garden.
Tour attendee: What is that plant that you’re picking?
Asa Moss: Sour sorrel.
Tour attendee: Oh, yeah, that’s delicious.
Second-grader Asa Moss showed us how to make a weedo.
Tour attendee: What does it stand for?
Asa Moss: I don’t know.
A weedo burrito, a little layered snack made from the plants they grow. Asa’s mom Julia Moss used to be a teacher here.
Julia Moss: Asa comes home having eaten so many greens from the garden all day long. So it makes me very happy.
Next stop, the Berkeley Aquatic Park. There, Wholly H20 guide Chris James schooled us on the history of the watershed.
Chris James: All of Berkeley was really a flood plain. All the East Bay is really a flood plain. That’s why it was such great agricultural land.
It’s been a long, but beautiful day. I take a moment to reflect with Bay Area Green Tours founder Marissa LaMagna.
Marissa LaMagna: I’d been going to Bioneers for many, many years. When they asked me to do the tours, I was thrilled. Because that’s the way to learn — give people things to do that they can take out into the world for the rest of their lives.
The Bioneers conference ends on Saturday in Berkeley. Their conference website has more information on the schedule and how to register.
This story was produced in partnership with KALW. Check out the audio version of this story on their website.
shaylyn martos is a California Local News Fellow with the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
