Pollinator Pathway

The Berkeley Pollinator Pathway demonstrates how a single project can inspire an entire community. What began in 2005 with the planting of a coast live oak and native plants in a Berkeley traffic circle grew into a neighborhood-wide effort when brothers Joey and Leo Grossinger transformed their family's parking strip into pollinator habitat. Their work - and help! - inspired neighbors, and resulted in a connected network of gardens that now includes a traffic circle, two front gardens, and seven native parking strips.

Designed with drifts of native plants—including manzanita, California lilac, buckwheat, lupines, sages, and fuchsia—the pathway provides food, shelter, and nesting habitat for native bees, butterflies, birds, and other wildlife. Beyond restoring habitat, the project has strengthened the neighborhood itself, bringing residents together to share plants, tools, knowledge, and a common vision of recreating the East Bay's historic landscapes—one garden at a time.

Pollinator Hill in San Pablo Park is an enclosed native plant pollinator garde located in a large multi-purpose city park in Southwest Berkeley. The garden was established in the spring of 2021 and is maintained by volunteers organized by Transition Berkeley. The garden demonstrates seasonal growth of native plants in coastal California, adapting to dry summers and wetter winters.

The Ebb and Flow of How Plants Grow in California

by Carole Bennett-Simmons 2002

Spring’s bright blossoms in Summer fade,

Except a few, some live in shade.

The people sigh, “It looks so dry!”

The birds reply, “It’s seed time, That’s why !”

The banquet for seed eaters has just begun

When plants set seed in Summer sun.

California plants take a rest in dry, hot Fall.

Winter rains will awaken them one and all.

Winter is the growing season.

Plenty of rain is all the reason.

Strawberry Creek Park Native Plant Garden was the 1st Transition Berkeley Pollinator Garden in the Parks, installed February 2021. This well established garden is located near a daylighted creek in a popular recreation area in West Berkeley. It is lovingly maintained by volunteers from Transition Berkeley and Friends of Strawberry Creek Park.

Grove Park Pollinator Habitat is located on the southeast perimeter of a popular neighborhood park in South Berkeley. It was started in December 2024 and is maintained by community volunteers organized by Transition Berkeley. Most of the native plants were granted from the Xerces Society with additional plants purchased from Watershed Nursery by the Berkeley Parks Dept.

Transition Berkeley's Nurturing a Nature Network is a community-led initiative creating native pollinator gardens and seed libraries throughout Berkeley. Volunteers, the City of Berkeley Parks Department, schools, and community partners have established pollinator gardens at Strawberry Creek Park, Charlie Dorr Mini-Park, Ohlone Greenway, San Pablo Park, Grove Park, Malcolm X Elementary School, Berkeley Independent Studies, and McGee Baptist Church, along with native seed libraries at Urban Farm Oasis, Bancroft Garden, Peralta Garden, and Gill Tract Community Farm. Together, these projects are restoring public spaces with California native plants and creating connected habitat for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.