A roller blader rides across a short concrete retaining wall with native landscaping behind them.

The Bay Area Urban Nature Collaborative

Linking Science, Policy, and Practice Across the Bay Area

Roller blader at 15 Second Memorial Park. Photo: Hossam el-Hamalawy, CC by 4.0.

The Challenges

Bay Area cities face rising temperatures, increased flooding, declining biodiversity, and corresponding public health ramifications.
Nature is distributed inequitably within cities and across the region, largely based on income.
Habitats cross municipal boundaries, though coordination amongst cities and organizations is uncommon.
There are no Bay Area regional urban nature goals that everyone can work towards together.

Communities, nonprofit organizations, and professionals (e.g., landscape architects, engineers, planners) lack the tools to meaningfully integrate urban nature into their planning and infrastructure projects.
Many organizations are working towards solutions, but largely in uncoordinated silos. As a result, urban greening projects proceed in isolation, missing opportunities for collective impact, cost-effectiveness, and equitable distribution of benefits.

The Collaborative

Goals

To create healthier and more resilient cities, SFEI is establishing a Bay Area Urban Nature Collaborative, with three primary goals:

Collaboratively set regional goals to provide multiple benefits across 3 key impact areas—urban nature, clean water, and public health.
Link science to practice by providing tools and information to those who need it. We want to help solve existing problems, not create more process.
Build on and leverage each others' efforts by breaking down silos and providing a framework for coordination.

Process & Leadership

The Collaborative will act as an umbrella framework for regional workgroups that focus on different urban nature issues, sectors, and disciplines. Workgroups will span an array of topics including green stormwater infrastructure, green jobs, and governance.

Workgroup members will include anyone interested in contributing their expertise on a particular topic – communities, community-based organizations, Tribes, nonprofit organizations, academics, private and public sector practitioners (planners, landscape architects, engineers) are all invited to join!

The overall process will be guided by a Steering Committee and a Technical Advisory Committee, and facilitated by a Core Team of SFEI staff.

Priorities

We are building an urban nature movement and the Collaborative is slowly gaining momentum – a regional vision is starting to emerge.

Our current priorities are:

Fundraising
Continuing to meet with new and existing partners
Establishing the Steering Committee
Establishing the Technical Advisory Committee
Hosting urban nature-related events

See our technical priorities and needs in PRIORITY TOPICS below.

Bikers on a paved road with a variety of different plants and trees behind them

Bikers in Golden Gate Park. Photo: Renne Grayson, CC by 2.0

Priority Topics

The Collaborative’s various workgroups will be comprised of hundreds of subject matter experts spanning the many topics, disciplines, and sectors that touch urban nature.

Once the Steering Committee is established, and also based on funding availability, priority workgroup topics will advance. Based on initial feedback from partner meetings and our February 2026 webinar, priority topics could include:

Stormwater / GSI / Clean water / Flooding
Greenways for recreation and wildlife, also linked to creek restoration
Public Health
Financing / Governance / Policy
Urban forestry
Green streets

Maintenance
Plant palettes, including climate-informed recommendations
Pocket parks
Access to nature
Tribal engagement
Links to housing inventory and cost

Read more about WORKGROUPS, including a comprehensive list of possible workgroup topics.

We are excited to have launched our first pilot workgroup in early 2026 focused on public health, via funding from the Tipping Point Community Foundation. This initial funding looks at the relationships between climate change and early childhood health outcomes in urban low-income communities. The 20+ workgroup members include academics, physicians, community-based organizations, nonprofits, government agencies, and private firms.

Partners

We are incredibly fortunate to launch the Collaborative with many partners supporting the effort.

Join us! We continue to actively look for partners and funding for the Collaborative. If you know of an organization or individual working on urban nature that we should connect with, please let us know by emailing Karen Verpeet at [email protected].

Funders

Funders are partner organizations that financially support the work of the Collaborative.

Endorsers

Endorsers are partner organizations that support the Collaborative but lack capacity to contribute time or funding. They philosophically endorse and support the Collaborative’s goals.

Advisors

Advisors are partner organizations that support the Collaborative but lack capacity to participate in a formal leadership role. They are thought partners to the Core Team and provide alignment between the Collaborative and the Advisor’s organization (and other efforts they are involved in or aware of).

Leadership

For partners participating as Steering Committee members, Technical Advisory Committee members, or Workgroups leads see LEADERSHIP.

Events

Tue, Jun 9 2026, 12pm

Urban Nature Collaborative Webinar

Tue, Feb 24 2026, 12 - 1pm

Join the Conversation: Bay Area Urban Nature Collaborative Webinar

Resources

One of the Collaborative’s primary goals is to provide tools and information to those working on urban nature projects, whether at the planning scale or the site scale. These resources will increase regional coordination and efficiency, while decreasing individual organizational costs (e.g., a city could access regional data rather than having to individually pay for it).

Workgroups will identify existing resources, which will be shared on a web portal and announcements dashboard. Anticipated resources include:
Regional data
Regional analyses and prioritization
Technical assistance
Templates/precedents/models
Tools (e.g., plant palettes, urban greening priority maps)
Guidance and more general resources (e.g., lessons learned information)
Grant opportunities
Resources for community engagement and community-supported monitoring and maintenance training

Workgroups will also identify resource gaps and funding opportunities to obtain the additional resources. Once in hand, these resources would be added to the web portal for regional use.