East Bay park district appoints its first female general manager
After a nationwide recruiting effort, the East Bay Regional Park District’s Board of Directors has selected East Bay native Sabrina Landreth to be the general manager of the twocounty public agency. As general manager, Landreth will be the park district’s top administrator, overseeing the acquisition, management and preservation of 73 parklands comprising nearly 125,000 acres of public lands throughout Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Landreth succeeds Robert Doyle, who retired at the end of 2020 after 47 years of service at the agency, including the last 10 as general manager. She is the first female and 10th general manager in the district’s 87-year history.
Landreth is well known in the East Bay, having most recently served as city administrator for Oakland and directing day-to-day operations of the city’s 25 departments and 5,000 employees with a $1.7 billion budget. Before that she worked as Emeryville city manager and Oakland’s budget director, legislative analyst and deputy city administrator.
As part of her duties, Landreth has had extensive experience working with the state Assembly and various state agencies. She also has led creative and complex landuse partnerships in the East Bay. Landreth has a bachelor of science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in public policy from UC Berkeley. She and her husband are fifthgeneration Bay Area residents. She will start her new job March 15.
“I am honored to be appointed by the board as the district’s next general manager,” Landreth said. “I look forward to continuing to build upon the great work the district does to improve the quality of life for our East Bay community, while adhering to its social and environmental responsibilities.”
TREE yORTALITY >> Along with some other public agencies in the state, the East Bay Regional Park District is experiencing a troubling onset of tree mortality and dieback (progressive death of twigs, branches, shoots or roots, starting at the tips) that was first noticed in October.
Trees most affected are eucalyptus, acacia, bay and pine. The dieback also has been observed in the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, Marin County and San Diego. Regional parks most impacted are Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park in Oakland, Tilden Regional Park near Berkeley and especially Anthony Chabot Regional Park in Castro Valley because of its extensive eucalyptus plantation. In total, some 1,500 acres are affected in the regional parks.
The cause is not fully understood, but is believed to be due to recent droughts related to climate change. Because of the serious implications for fire protection, the park district’s Fire and Stewardship departments are partnering with the U.S. Forest Service, UC Berkeley and resource managers from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in Sacramento to study the causes. Fire Chief Aileen Theile is the park district’s lead on the project.
The district has created a Tree Mortality Task Force, including staff from the fire, stewardship and operations departments. The task force is developing a plan to treat some of the affected areas in the regional parks. The group will coordinate with other jurisdictions in Contra Costa and Alameda counties where the dieback also has been detected.