SPRAWLDEF is the Sustainability, Parks, Recycling, and Wildlife Legal Defense Fund
SPRAWLDEF is a non-profit corporation created to take on environmental issues that others cannot or will not pursue. It is primarily focused on legal action. It has successfully sued agencies and cities over misguided landfill and development projects, as well as ill-conceived policies. SPRAWLDEF seeks to redress the imbalance created by the massive human footprint on the environment, and protecting the fragile state of our wildlife and habitat caught under that footprint.
Current campaigns include two in Richmond, CA, and one encompassing the entire territory for the East Bay Regional Parks District, which spans Alameda and Contra Costa counties, more specifically:
- efforts to maximize open space and wildlife protection at Point Molate, on the shoreline in Richmond, CA (see Parks page for more details);
- pushing for the cleanup and preservation of a contaminated bay front property at the Astra Zeneca site, also in Richmond (see Sustainability page for more details);
- a campaign to follow demanding proper environmental review of the East Bay Regional Parks’ premature approval of regular and electric bike use on single track trails (see Parks page for more detail).
Another major campaign on the horizon involves the critical question of what type of activities or development will succeed the June 2024 closure of Golden Gate Fields racetrack, which has significant bay front territory in both Berkeley and Albany. SPRAWLDEF has long advocated for reactivation of this 140 acre site as a restored marsh land that would provide the critical connection between existing parklands. The inevitability of sea level rise at this site only reinforces this vision (see the Sustainability page for more details).