Preservation of New Open Space and Wildlife Habitat / Aggressive Pursuit of Wildfire Risk Reduction / Enhanced Public Safety in the Parks

As a member of the Park District Board, Colin Coffey has aggressively pursued prioritizing expanded open space and preservation of wildlife habitat. Colin has also prioritized new and innovative programs throughout East Bay parklands to reduce wildfire risk. Colin has emphasized the need to secure the safety of park and trail users, and he is particularly happy with the Park District Police Department’s recent ability to reach 100% staffing of its sworn officers. Looking back on the Park District’s recent achievements, Colin is particularly proud of the Board and staff’s ability to keep almost all the regional parks and trails open during the covid emergency period at a time when park operation challenges caused many federal, state, county, and city parks to shut down.

New Open Spaces

The State of California over the past several years, through the work of the Governor and Legislature, has facilitated and largely funded the most valuable new East Bay open space and wildlife habitat in the history of the Park District. Showing extraordinary trust and confidence in the Park District, the State’s leadership decided that the State funded Golden Gate Fields and Pt. Molate bay shoreline properties should be owned by the Park District to maintain and preserve for pubic access, open space and wildlife habitat. Colin received recognition from East Shore Parks supporters for the role he played in pursuing these new parklands.

The State has also recently entered into an agreement with the Park District for the eventual Park District operation of the new Dutch Slough marshlands and trail system as an extension of the Big Break Regional Shoreline Park in Oakley. Colin is happy to have brought Dutch Slough project managers and Park District planners together to negotiate that agreement. Colin has worked hard with Park District management to pursue preservation of new open space and habitat connected to existing parklands bordering Pittsburg, Antioch, Brentwood and Oakley. Colin has also been a strong supporter of the Park District partnership with the East Contra Costa Habitat Conservancy, a partnership that has preserved and restored hundreds of acres of native plant and animal habitat in a wildlands corridor extending from Pittsburg to Byron.

Wildfire Mitigation

As the threat of wildfires to East Bay households has become more acute in recent years, Colin has supported the expansion of direct expenditures on programs reducing wildfire risks from $2 million a year to more than $10 million in 2025. The Park District has adopted an innovated approach to fuels reduction that attacks the issue from many different

angles, each tailored to specific challenges. They include: additional fuels management crews managed by the Park District Fire Department and youth development organizations like CiviCorp, huge investments in new fuels reduction equipment that attack all terrains and vegetation types, invasive weed removal programs, native tree reforestation projects and native plant reintroductions, cattle, sheep and goat grazing expansions, pond restorations to enhance the scope of grazing, tree die-off zone targeting along with nationally recognized efforts to dispose of dead wood in environmentally friendly ways, and District wide hazard mitigation plans and Fire Risk Mitigation Plans for each major regional park. Colin has especially supported new Park District partnerships with other local and state agencies to extend fire breaks and fuels reduction across jurisdictions throughout Contra Costa County. Notably, Colin has also been an advocate for enhanced Park District fire fighting capabilities, including expanded hours of fire station staffing and larger water drop equipment for Park District helicopters.