University of California-Berkeley: Richmond Field Station

I love seeing those turkeys chasing people around. lol

I recently took a class here — finding the building was a bit confusing however it gives me one of the best stories ever: I went the wrong way and there was a turkey in the road it was just barely dawn and that blasted turkey would not move even when I was almost on top of it with my car. There was no way I was going to run over a turkey so I thro the car in reverse and start backing up, the turkey went crazy puffed up and began chasing my car. It was a sight to say the least! I finally found the right building after almost being taken out by a turkey but it kind of made it hard to focus. I can chuckle about it now but it was not funny at the time. creepy creeper turkey you would have tasted delicious.

Richmond Field Station is a UC Berkeley-​owned plot of land in Richmond near the bay. It hosts a variety of labs and other facilities. it even has an earthquake testing thing! I think the EPA occupies some of the buildings as well. I’ve worked in a School of Public Health lab at Richmond Field Station since June 2010. Basically, it’s just a giant field with a eucalyptus grove and a lot of bungalow-​looking buildings.
So why go to RFS if you don’t work there? It has an awesome view of the bay and the San Francisco skyline! Additionally, there is some interesting ecosystem restoration work going on there. A blasting cap factory used to operate the land, and there are efforts now to restore parts of it back to its marshy roots. There are also some open fields and perhaps a library of sorts? To be honest, I haven’t ventured too far out of my lab’s corner of RFS.
There is a campus bus route that runs to RFS during normal working hours. Unfortunately, you can’t use your Cal1 Card to take the shuttle for free (why?!), so it costs $ 1.50. Or, you can just drive there! As far as I can tell, the gates are open from about 8 – 5 Monday to Friday. After that, you need a card to enter.

Richmond Field Station is a on offsite teaching/​reseacrh facility used by UC Berkeley, the EPA, and various other tenants. I’m familiar with the graduate art studio facilities housed here. An interesting place where art students can practice their craft and get seminars and input from professional artists. Unique, also in that it’s surrounded by preserved marsh/​bayland which involves conducting building engineering testing, forestry products research, transportation studies and environmental research at a number of facilities nearby.