
“My dream is that the whole of Mount Diablo, including its foothills, will remain open space—that the visual and natural integrity will be sustained.” —Dr. Mary L. Bowerman
Celebrating Mary Bowerman’s Life
On January 25, we celebrate Save Mount Diablo co-founder Dr. Mary Bowerman’s birthday!
It is no exaggeration to say that Mary’s passion and determination to protect Mount Diablo’s landscapes and ecosystems have significantly helped shape the Bay Area we know today.

Save Mount Diablo co-founders Dr. Mary Bowerman and Art Bonwell. Photo by Sandra Hoover and Saul Bromberger
She co-founded Save Mount Diablo with Art Bonwell in 1971, when Mount Diablo State Park was only 6,788 acres in size. At that point, development was squeezing the mountain’s foothills, threatening places such as what is now Walnut Creek’s Shell Ridge Open Space.
Today there are more than 120,000 acres of conserved wild lands in the Diablo region, thanks to the conservation foundation set by Dr. Mary Bowerman and her associates decades ago.
We enjoy many of the more than 50 parks and preserves on and around Mount Diablo because of her vision, and her resilience and perseverance.

Mary Bowerman out in the field as a young woman
Mary Bowerman also helped found the Mount Diablo Interpretive Association in 1974.
Mary also served on the Board of The Nature Conservancy for a very long time, with a focus on the desert.
She served on Save Mount Diablo’s Board of Directors until her death in 2005.
As a young adult, she obtained her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley as a graduate student of world-famous botanist Willis Lynn Jepson.
She became an expert on the Mount Diablo region.
In the 1930s, she cataloged populations of the critically endangered Mount Diablo buckwheat.
She was the last to record its locations until its rediscovery in 2005.

Mount Diablo buckwheat. Photo by Scott Hein
She eventually complied her knowledge into a book, The Flowering Plants and Ferns of Mount Diablo, California.
Published in 1944, Mary Bowerman’s book is still considered the bible for Mount Diablo’s botanists.
Mary’s 1944 book also chronicled Mount Diablo’s recovery after a 25,000-acre fire that blazed across the mountain in 1931.
Mary’s flora was updated by Barbara Ertter and republished by the California Native Plant Society in 2002.

Mary Bowerman at her book signing after her book was republished by the California Native Plant Society. Photo by Tony Morosco
“It was probably the most well-documented source of information on local fire ecology in the East Bay at the time,” noted botanist Heath Bartosh.
Mary used her knowledge on fire ecology to fiercely advocate against a planned replanting on Mount Diablo after the 1977 Morgan Fire. She educated people about how the mountain would restore itself after the wildfire, as it had in the 1930s and 1940s.
Honoring a Monumental Green Legacy

Participants on our Dr. Mary Bowerman 116th birthday hike. Photo by Roxana Lucero
One of Mount Diablo State Park’s most popular trails is the Dr. Mary Bowerman Interpretive Trail, a one-mile loop with panoramic views that circles the summit. Each year, we celebrate Mary’s birthday with a Discover Diablo hike on this trail.
In 2013, Save Mount Diablo created the Mary Bowerman Science and Research program in Mary’s honor. It provides small grants to researchers working to expand our knowledge of Mount Diablo and its sustaining Diablo Range.

Scientists chatting at one of our Mary Bowerman Science and Research colloquia. Photo by Laura Kindsvater
Each year, in December, the researchers present their findings at the Mary Bowerman Science and Research colloquium.
At our 2023 colloquium, park expert and founding Board member of Save Mount Diablo Bob Doyle spoke about Mary Bowerman; to him, she was both a partner in conservation and a close friend for decades.