Despite its density, Albany is home to a thriving natural environment! Albany hosts 5,000 publicly owned trees, 5 creeks, a sandy beach and wetlands, 112 acres of open space, and 104 acres of research farmland.

The City's watershed includes five creeks: Cerrito, Codornices, Marin, Middle and Village. These tidal creeks flow from the Berkeley Hills to the San Francisco Bay and provide valuable habitat for fish and other wildlife, including endangered Steelhead Trout. Restoration projects of Cerrito and Codornices can be enjoyed by visitors on adjacent trails.

Albany Hill Park rises 338 feet above sea level and boasts 134 native plant species, including 2 orchids, 3 different roses, and 7 kinds of fern. The park is full of life, and visitors may encounter hawks, songbirds, monarch butterflies, spring-flowering elderberries, and buckeyes on their journey through the open grasslands and twisted old willows along the sparkling creek.

The Albany Waterfront offers approximately 88 acres of publicly owned parkland on the eastern edge of the San Francisco Bay, including Albany Beach, Albany Bulb, and the Plateau. Much of the waterfront was created gradually from filling the Bay with construction debris, the terrain has been configured by vegetation growing over the fill. Although the site is a landfill, over time it has evolved into a natural area that supports a wide variety of migratory and resident plants and wildlife, including a variety of bird species. A large portion of the Plateau is maintained by the East Bay Regional Park District as a potential habitat for the Burrowing Owl. The Beach is a natural development generated by the interplay of tidal action and the contour of the landfill and has undergone recent restoration project by the East Bay Regional Park District. The tideland area includes the Albany Mudflats, a distinctive wetland area that is one of the most significant habitat areas in the East Bay.

Albany’s Urban Forestry Program maintains and expands our valuable street trees, which beautify neighborhoods, reduce noise and air pollution, provide shade and habitat for wildlife, and sequester carbon.