EBRPD is actively removing eucalyptus across 56 acres along Tilden Park's Grizzly Peak Trail, but a multi-agency fuel break project covering the wider corridor is now on pause after a CAL FIRE grant came in $300,000 short of the requested amount.

Along the Grizzly Peak Trail above Berkeley, the sky is noticeably wider than it used to be. Large swaths of eucalyptus that once lined the first miles of the trail through Tilden Regional Park are gone — removed as part of a major, multi-agency wildfire risk reduction campaign that is simultaneously one of the most significant landscape transformations in the East Bay Hills in years and, in one key stretch, currently on hold.

The East Bay Regional Park District, led by Acting General Manager Max Korten, is executing project TI012 South FEMA Eucalyptus Removals — a 56.3-acre campaign targeting land near the Tilden Merry-Go-Round and south of the Tilden Park Golf Course, scheduled to run May through December 2026. The work directly impacts the Grizzly Peak Trail and Selby Trail and draws from $6.1 million in FEMA funding and $1.88 million from Measure FF. It is one piece of a broader $12 million state and federal portfolio the district has assembled for fuels reduction across the East Bay Hills.

A parallel effort — the Grizzly Peak Strategic Fuel Break — has hit a wall. That project would thin vegetation across six areas between Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Wildcat Canyon Road within Tilden and Sibley Regional Parks. Its partners include EBRPD, the Berkeley Fire Department, EBMUD (under General Manager Clifford C. Chan), UC Berkeley, and CAL FIRE. Shanalee Gallagher, Principal Project Manager at the City of Berkeley, leads the day-to-day work; Phase 1 launched February 17, 2025, and Phase 2 began June 16, 2025, treating 3.24 miles of roadside corridor and removing 44.8 tons of vegetation before the project stopped.

The pause comes down to a state grant that came in smaller than requested. CAL FIRE reduced the award by approximately $300,000, leaving a $448,000 total grant — now fully expended. Berkeley FireSafe, which coordinates the project, noted on its project page: "The original grant application included funding to finish the full fuel break; however, CAL FIRE requested a reduction in project scope, resulting in an award approximately $300,000 lower than requested. The project is currently on pause while we pursue new funding sources."

The vegetation clearance extends up to 10 feet from Grizzly Peak Boulevard — which doubles as a primary evacuation route for Berkeley's Hills neighborhoods — and up to 100 feet into the surrounding emergency access zone. Biological monitors have been on site through the work, surveying for nesting birds and wildlife.

EBRPD has committed to restoring native oak-bay woodland understory in cleared areas once fuels reduction work is complete, replacing the highly flammable non-native species with fire-adapted habitat. The timeline for canopy recovery, though, is measured in decades.

For now, hikers on the Grizzly Peak Trail will find what the data and the landscape plainly confirm: stumps where eucalyptus stood, open ridgeline where there was shade, and a fuel break that still has miles to go and no announced funding to finish it.