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This story is part of our Summer 2025 trails guide. See the trail map or find more great trails.

East Palo Alto residents will be getting access to the San Francisco Bay for the first time with the opening of a new public park on a former toxic waste dump.

Cooley Landing Park, situated on a man-made peninsula of trash jutting out into the bay, will feature a multi-use trail and picnic areas. The 9-acre park on Bay Road will increase open space in the underserved, lower-income community by 72 percent.

“They’ve lived right on the bay all this time,” said city project manager Shannon Alford. “But they haven’t had access to it. What does it mean to live on the bay but not be able to walk up and see it?”

Sunrise at Cooley Landing — Sunrise from Cooley landing. (Flickr user ricknor, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Cooley Landing was created as a burn dump in 1932, and rapidly grew into a peninsula of toxic waste jutting out into the bay. By 1963, the dumping and burning had come to an end, and resident Carl Schoof used Cooley Landing as a secluded location to repair boats. His boat lift still stands, and will be converted to a viewing platform.

Because of toxins in the soil, Cooley Landing won’t be safe for public access until cleanup has completed. Restoration began in November with the removal of contaminated soil and a capping of the site. Next comes the installation of a mile of trails and amenities that include picnic tables and benches. The city expects to have that work completed by the summer.

Wetland habitat will also be restored to serve as a breeding ground for clapper rail, a federally listed species of concern. The Palo Alto Baylands population is the world’s largest concentration of the chicken-sized marsh waders. The city also hopes to attract the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse.

A brown mouse balances on a plant — A salt marsh harvest mouse, photographed during a permitted survey. Ninety percent of this endangered, Bay-endemic mouse’s habitat is gone. (wyattherp via iNaturalist, CC-BY-NC)

The Cooley Landing project has been in the works for over a decade when residents got together to decide how to create more open space in a dense, urban landscape. They hope to eventually add an educational center, public access to Carl Schoof’s old house, and more trails, although those wishes have yet to be funded.

“The park is important because it’s giving people from the city the opportunity to see and interact with nature,” said Melvin Gaines, 28, a lifetime resident of East Palo Alto, who has been involved with the project.

Cooley Landing is flanked by two nature preserves. To the south is the Palo Alto Baylands and Faber-Laumeister tract, part of the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge. To the north is the Ravenswood Open Space Preserve. Both are wetland areas that are valuable habitat for wildlife, but restricted from public access save for designated perimeter trails.

Adjacent to the site is the now-closed Romic Environmental Technologies Corp., which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the city have worked to clean up after a 2006 explosion spread chemical residue over a wide swath of the baylands.

“Before we started construction the public couldn’t access Cooley Landing because there was a locked gate and all of these ‘Do Not Enter’ signs,” said Alford. “But we want to open up the space to them, give them a place where they’re encouraged to come and be here, not barred out or told to leave.”

Cooley Landing via Bay Trail
2.7 mi, 9 ft elevation gain, loop

Grow the mind to grow the soil to grow the food that strengthens the community.

That’s the mantra of Tara Firm Farms in Petaluma. The farm was inspired by the same guiding principles that operate Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm in Virginia, which was popularized in Michael Pollan’s 2006 bestseller The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

After only two and a half years, owner Tara Smith is calling it a success. She hopes to start a farm school which she envisions as a nonprofit training program on how to farm sustainably and humanely — and make money doing it.

When Tara Smith read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, she was horrified by the state of the food industry. The bit about Polyface Farm intrigued her. She thought to herself, “I could do that.”

So, less than three years ago, on a newly purchased plot of 300 acres, Tara and her husband Craig Smith began their journey towards providing a reliable and healthy source of food to the community.

Like Polyface, Tara Firma Farms raises animals at pasture, keeping cows, chickens, and pigs in a constant rotation. This system of rotation ensures the health of the grass, which is crucial on a farm with pasture-raised animals.

But there’s a crucial difference between the two. Polyface is in a four season East Coast climate. The Smiths had to improvise some of their own farming methods to cater to the West Coast’s rainy-dry seasons.

Just one example of this challenge lies in the ability of West Coast farms to remain in operation all year round. Adjusting the farm to the not-quite-winter of California involved providing the right balance of shelter and pasture for the animals. And during the cold months of the year, the farmers — and animals — are very much still at work.

“We have woods for the pigs to live in during the summer,” said Tara Smith. “They eat walnuts, acorns, and bugs in the ground. But in the winter we bring them out of the woods because it’s too muddy and slippery. So in the winter, we keep them in the fields, and they’re digging up the ground, getting it ready for planting in the spring.”

Tara Firma Farms also serves as a community center. Free farm tours are available every hour on the hour from 10-3 during weekends, and the farm store is open seven days a week for purchase of olive oil, honey, meat, eggs, and books, one of which, of course, is the book that started it all — The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It also hosts events in the barn, and doles out produce and meat to locals through CSA (community supported agriculture) memberships.

Now, Tara Smith wants to focus on education, to teach others how to grow healthy food as farmers, and how to make a profit along the way.

“We don’t have farmers because people think it’s hard and horrible and you don’t earn any money,” explained Smith. “But you can do it. You don’t have to be poor. You can be a farmer and still go on vacations and have nice things.”

The mentality that farming means modest living is what Smith hopes to change with her upcoming nonprofit educational program. The program, anticipated to kick off in March 2012, aims to raise future farmers, assist them in raising money to buy land to start their own farms, and teach them a business model and marketing skills that will enable them to grow food for profit.

During an age of increasing distrust in a turbulent global economy, this shift of mentality could be just what local food economies need to thrive independently, empowering individuals and communities alike.