Help Save Knowland Park!

Location: Oakland, CA

Website: www.saveknowland.org

Knowland Park is a 500-acre wildland park in the Oakland hills, deeded to the city in the 1970s under the condition that it would always remain a park. Located above the Oakland Zoo, which sits on a portion of the property, it is the largest and most pristine of Oakland’s parks, a thriving hotspot for rare native plants and wildlife. But it has never been listed on the city’s Parks website, despite repeated requests.

Thus its amazing natural resources remain relatively undiscovered by the public.

In 2011, the City approved a major “conservation” theme park expansion of the Oakland Zoo into more than 50 acres of sensitive wildlife and rare plant habitat in the undeveloped area of the park. The development would include an aerial gondola ride with 60-foot towers and a three-story ridgetop visitor center, restaurant and gift shop, all approved without a full Environmental Impact Report and over the protests of numerous environmental and citizens’ groups.

Two of these groups, the Friends of Knowland Park and the East Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, have filed a lawsuit aimed at forcing the City to complete a full environmental review as required under the California Environmental Quality Act.

A full EIR would require thorough consideration of other alternatives to this destructive and expensive project.

0ur goals are to save the park’s precious habitat for existing wildlife and to protect the remainder of Knowland Park from further development, specifically:

- Ensure preservation of the largest remaining piece of open space owned by the city of Oakland for wildlife habitat, native plants and free public access.

- Dissuade the Zoo from  its current ill-conceived expansion plan and work toward a more modest plan that serves an authentic conservation goal: preserving wildlife habitat.

- Reduce or mitigate traffic congestion, noise/light and air pollution impacts on surrounding communities and wildlife.

- Increase community awareness of the threats to open space and wildlife habitat in the South Bay hills and the relationships between the fight to protect Knowland Park and other community concerns.

- Require the City to complete a full Environmental Impact Report.

ioby

Location: Nationwide

Website: www.ioby.org

Climate change. Toxic landfills. Shrinking parks—and wildlife.

You care about these things, and you want to pitch in. So you recycle, buy local and use only ‘green’ products. You’re doing your part for the environment. Right?

Sure. Recycling and buying local or green are great. But if you want change that goes deeper—change you can really invest in—what about starting in our backyard?

Welcome to ioby. Together, we represent a new face for change—one that’s hopeful, positive…and visible.

"It’s our backyard, and it belongs to us and our kids." –Brandon Whitney

It started with a legacy of city dwellers. These people—your everyday neighbors—created daily change. They cleaned up lots. Planted trees and gardens. Brought fresh produce to areas that needed it. They got their hands dirty. But few noticed. Joyful as it was, the change was tiny—and isolated. To gain steam, it needed power, money, people and hype. It needed a platform.

Enter ioby. ioby connects change with resources. It enables all of us to invest in change—then see (and live with) the return on our investment. These pages aren’t glamorous. There are no celebrities, no large-scale protests. There are everyday neighbors taking small steps—bringing sunlight, open space, fresh food and greenery into our backyards.

Small steps have big impact. They can ripple through the city. To us, that’s real—and it goes far. It goes beyond your intentions, beyond the abstract, beyond the simple ‘click.’ Take a look around! Pick a project close to your home or your heart—and help us spread the word.

ioby is an environmental nonprofit organization. Our name is derived from the opposite of NIMBY. We have a mission to deepen civic engagement in cities by connecting individuals directly to community-led, neighbor-funded environmental projects in their neighborhoods. We do this primarily through our web-based crowd-resourcing platform.

Crowd-resourcing is a made-up word combining the concepts of crowd-funding (the ability to pool small donations made online to a specific cause or project) and resource organizing (a core tenet of community organizing that considers activists and advocates the best supporters to ensure financial sustainability of a cause or project). We believe that crowd-resourcing is a powerful way to build support and ensure success of a project.