Shorebird Park Nature Center

Shorebird Park/Strawbale Nature Center information

Strawbale Nature Center 
Open to the public -Tuesday -Saturday  9-5
9-1:00 Tues- Fri -Classroom programs may keep us in the other building so if you call first we can be sure to help you..

The City of Berkeley’s Shorebird Park Nature Center is the first municipal strawbale building in the United States. It has a solar hot water radiant system to provide heating year-round in the cool marina climate, and a solar photovoltaic electrical system to power the aquariums, computers, lighting and other equipment.   Our new Straw Bale building  is now the Nature/Visitors Center and Office. Here you'll find  a 50 gallon salt tank, a 30 gallon fresh water tank and displays on Marine mammals and birds.The building itself is a display on green building.  The New Center provides information to visitors concerning all areas of recreation and marine conservation and education.  We do group tours which include watching a video on the process of building this building.
Our  phone number is 510- 981-6720,and  the  fax is 510 981-6725
With the donation of the Skystream 3.7 wind system from Southwest Windpower, the soon-to-be-built Green Classroom building will be powered by wind from San Francisco Bay. This wind turbine will be the first municipally-owned wind turbine in the nation.The new classroom will be where we hold workshops trainings and teach classes. It will hold 2 180 gallon salt water aquarium which displays creatures that live in the San Francisco Bay. and fresh water ecosystem.
Mid-week, the Classroom will offer  school group presentations, teacher workshops, and Summer Marine Biology Classes.  Schools and/ or teachers who would like more information should contact the center's program coordinator Patty Donald. We will begin our school year programs in Feb 2010. Here is the most current lottery form for 2010 classes  We are also the office for the Adventure Playground, and we do the Shoreline cleanups year round. We  need volunteers for our Bay Interpretive training program to help with our education programs during the school year.

To get back into the Marina Experience web pages click here
We are short staffed so cannot man each building full time. If you'd like a tour, please call so we can accommodate you. 

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