History

• Native Americans used the site for fishing and shellfish harvesting, as evidenced by the presence of neighboring shellmounds, some of which were removed in 1915 for the development of the Harborgate tract in Richmond. 

• It was part of the Rancho San Pablo land grant given to Francisco Maria Castro in 1823, which was subsequently subdivided and sold in the 1850s. One of the owners was Richard Stege, who raised bullfrogs for sale to San Francisco restaurants.  

• By the 1880s, the site was acquired by the California Cap Company, which manufactured explosives and blasting shells alongside smaller companies such as the U.S. Briquette Company and Pacific Cartridge Company. California Cap ceased operations in 1948. Explosive manufacturing activities included the production of mercury fulminate and has resulted in mercury contamination at the site.

• The first 100 acres (40 ha) of what would become Richmond Field Station were acquired from California Cap in 1950; the western section (between Regatta Blvd and Avocet Wy) was acquired in 1951. An additional 25-acre (10 ha) parcel (formerly the neighboring Regatta Industrial Center, just west of the original site) was acquired after 2008.

• Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905, and has a city council.

• Located in the San Francisco Bay Area‘s East Bay region, Richmond borders San Pablo, Albany, El Cerrito and Pinole in addition to the unincorporated communities of North Richmond, Hasford Heights, Kensington, El Sobrante, Bayview-Montalvin Manor, Tara Hills, and East Richmond Heights, and for a short distance San Francisco on Red Rock Island in the San Francisco Bay. 

• Richmond is one of two cities, the other being San Rafael, that sits on the shores of both San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. During Gayle McLaughlin‘s mayoralty, Richmond was the nation’s largest city with a Green Party mayor.

• Its population was 116,448 as of the 2020 census.

• The Richmond Field Station (RFS) is a satellite campus of the University of California, Berkeley located in Richmond, California. The name was changed to the Richmond Bay Campus (RBC) in 2012 and then Berkeley Global Campus at Richmond Bay (BGC) in October 2014, reflecting plans to expand the site to address global issues, first as a second campus for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), then as an expansion of the main campus in Berkeley itself. In 2016, the expansion plans were suspended and the name reverted to Richmond Field Station.

• RFS Site: The Richmond Field Station is in the South Shoreline neighborhood of Richmond, just north of Albany and west/south of I-580, approximately 15–20 minutes away from the main campus in Berkeley by car. The site is 170 acres in total, including the adjacent Regatta Industrial Center purchased by the university. There are three distinct habitats on site: the Upland Area, Transition Area, and Western Stege Marsh.The marsh area is further subdivided into low, middle, and high salt marshes and tidal wetlands with native species including the endangered California clapper rail.

Source Material: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Field_Station