About ebdogs
This site is Mary Barnsdale's. Mary is an East Bay resident who has been following the parks for several years.
Mary is a member of the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) Trail Users Working Group and a frequent parks volunteer.
In 2017, she coordinated the East Bay's first big beach microplastics cleanup, thanks to a grant from Alameda Countywide Clean Water Program and with support from EBRPD, Sea Turtles Forever, Albany Community Foundation, and The Watershed Project. She has trained EBRPD staff and others in microplastics removal using specialized, static-charge screens, and presented on that topic to inter-agency environmental teams, city councils, Rotary, and others.
She spent two years collaborating with EBRPD and stakeholders on a dog policies document to guide park user education, outreach, and practices District-wide.
Mary co-founded Albany Landfill Dog Owners Group, which until the pandemic coordinated three big cleanups at Albany Beach every year. ALDOG volunteers have removed almost 10,000 pounds of debris from the beach since 2013.
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Mary grew up on the East Coast, Italy, Malawi, Pakistan, England, and the former Yugoslavia. She has worked in communication for high-tech companies in Silicon Valley, the East Coast, and Hong Kong. She has an Executive MBA from St. Mary's College, Moraga, and a BA from UCSC.
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Mary is associated with various organizations, causes, and sometimes candidates, but what you read here may not be.
L to R: Marc Ward, founder of Sea Turtles Forever; Mary Barnsdale; Scott Possin, Supervisor of McLaughlin Eastshore State Park. In 2017, Mary coordinated the East Bay's first big beach microplastics cleanup. With the help of 115 volunteers, "Sift the Sand" removed 2,440 pounds of microplastics and debris from Albany Beach in just six hours.