Who Planted El Cerrito's Ohlone Greenway? This November, You Can Walk It With Them

Start at Fairmount Avenue, across from El Cerrito Plaza BART, and walk north. For two flat miles to Del Norte BART, the Ohlone Greenway runs under a tree canopy. In the early 1990s, that same stretch had one tree.

The El Cerrito Historical Society tells the story in one line on its event page.

"In the early 1990s El Cerrito's two mile stretch of the Ohlone Greenway had exactly one tree–until someone cut it down."

So the shade you walk under on the way to BART was planted. Nobody inherited it. The same page credits "volunteers, a city contract arborist, and a dedicated city official and staff" for the landscape there today. The care of those trees hasn't stopped, either. Over the next eight weeks, El Cerrito's public calendar has the original planters walking the route, the city giving residents' yard waste back to them as compost, and volunteer days at the creek park where the Greenway begins.

Two names behind the trees

The Greening the Greenway walk brings out the two people most closely tied to the planting. Steve Price was the organizer and lead volunteer. Steve Batchelder was the city's consulting arborist at the time. The walk runs Sunday, November 15, from 10 to 11 a.m. It's free and meets at the Ohlone Greenway at Fairmount Avenue, 6699 Fairmount Ave. Since it ends at Del Norte BART, a lot of walkers will ride one stop back to where they started.

November's walk is a repeat. The El Cerrito Trail Trekkers and the Historical Society co-sponsored the first one on July 18, and the Trail Trekkers' 2026 hikes page looks back on it with "It was a joy to hear them!" The same page shows a photo from the Fall 1993 issue of California Trees, the California ReLeaf newsletter, next to a recent shot of the path captioned "Green Today!" That means a statewide tree publication was paying attention to the work within a few years of the one-tree starting point.

For more details, the Historical Society's event page lists Dave Weinstein as the contact.

The sign at Schmidt Lane

According to both event pages, every block on the walk "has its own story – including the mysterious Dinosaur Forest."

You've probably passed it. Where the Greenway crosses Schmidt Lane, a sign reads "YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE DINOSAUR FOREST." In 2015, someone added it to Read The Plaque, the plaque map run by 99% Invisible, and wrote that there was almost nothing online explaining it. They asked anyone who knew to help. More than ten years later, the clearest chance to hear the story is from the people who did the planting, on the walk itself.

The other address on Schmidt Lane

Schmidt Lane is also where the El Cerrito Recycling + Environmental Resource Center sits, at 7501 Schmidt Lane. The other end of the city's green cycle starts here.

The center offers free public tours for individuals and small groups on Wednesday, November 4, and Wednesday, December 2, from 3 to 4 p.m. Tours start promptly in the office lobby, and you have to RSVP by email or phone. Larger groups can book other times for a fee. The center and its office are closed November 11 for Veterans Day, November 26 and 27 for Thanksgiving, and December 24 and 25. On December 31 it closes at noon. Curbside pickup stays on its usual schedule during the Veterans Day closure.

What goes into your green bin comes back as compost. The city's giveaway listing describes the compost as "Made from your yard waste and food scraps," and the pickup spot is uphill from the Greenway at Upper Cerrito Vista Park, next to the tennis courts. The entrance is off Avis Drive near Moeser Lane. The next two giveaways are Saturday, November 21, and Saturday, December 19. The rules are short. Only El Cerrito residents and businesses can take compost. Each household or business gets up to 5 cubic feet, which the city puts at about seven 5-gallon buckets. Bring your own containers and a shovel. If the weather is very wet, that month's giveaway may be postponed or skipped. Compost usually shows up on the third Saturday of each month, so this schedule doesn't change once the holidays are over.

Where the planting continues

Hands-on care for the Greenway's plantings continues at the north end. The city describes Baxter Creek Gateway Park, at Conlon Avenue, as a 1.4-acre natural area at the start of El Cerrito's Ohlone Greenway, with creek access and trails. It credits community members with helping create a healthy stream, native riparian habitat and a place to gather.

The El Cerrito Green Teams hold volunteer days there on Sunday, November 1, and Sunday, December 6, from 10 a.m. to noon. You'll pick up litter, pull invasive plants and care for native plants. Everyone meets at Conlon Avenue and the Ohlone Greenway. All ages are welcome, and kids under 13 need a guardian. Every volunteer has to fill out a registration form. Wear long sleeves, long pants and closed-toe shoes. The city brings tools, bags, gloves and sanitizer. The park has no bathrooms.

If the first-Sunday crew seems new to you, there's a reason. The city's May 2026 newsletter said the cleanups were paused while the program was evaluated, and the May through July dates were canceled. Monthly cleanups were set to resume August 2 on first Sundays, with changes around major holiday weekends. November and December will be the fourth and fifth months since the program came back.

Your November and December on the Greenway

The Rialto event isn't part of the Greenway story. It's on the Historical Society's calendar, though, and the Rialto Cinemas Cerrito is close enough to San Pablo Avenue's Greenway crossings to make it an easy evening walk.

Before the 10 a.m. start

The walk meets on Fairmount, and there's something new on that street this fall. Cafe Buenos Aires, an Argentine cafe built around empanadas that already had a West Berkeley shop and two in San Francisco, has opened at 6401 Fairmount Ave. The menu includes two vegan empanadas, plus smoothies, coffee drinks, alfajores and pastries, as Nosh reported in Richmondside on September 29. It took over the space that Sweet Potatoes Up Beet Cafe left in September, according to Nosh's October 16 closings roundup.

FatApple's restaurant and bakery is at Fairmount and Colusa. If you're coming from the Stockton Avenue side, Well Grounded Tea & Coffee Bar at 6925 Stockton Ave. opens at 7 a.m. on weekends. It serves coffee, tea, bagels and sandwiches, and it's celebrating 21 years.

What's changing at the south end

From the meeting spot, you'll see construction on what used to be BART surface parking. That's El Cerrito Plaza BART Parcel A South, a six-story building with 70 affordable homes. Related California is building it with BART and the city, and officials held the groundbreaking on March 6, 2026. The plans include secure bike storage and a repair station next to the Ohlone Greenway. The city's December 2025 City Manager's Update describes it as the first of six planned buildings. The city's announcement expects this first phase to finish in the first quarter of 2027.

Farther north, one repair is already done. The city's December 2025 City Manager's Update reported that about 500 feet of Greenway paving near Centennial Park, between Lincoln and Stockton avenues, had been fixed after damage from water intrusion and tree roots. Root damage is part of the upkeep for a path lined with this many trees.

If you're on the Greenway on the 15th, I'd like to hear what the Dinosaur Forest turns out to be. I'm Mark, and if you ever want to talk about the blocks on either side of the path, I'm easy to find at Mark Choi. When you're ready, you can start your East Bay home search there too.