When Anza’s expedition first arrived in the East Bay in March 1776, it encountered a very level country, green and flower-covered to the estuary, with creeks full of salmon and trout, grizzlies and elk roaming free, shore birds gathering by the millions, and dozens of communities of Ohlone and Bay Miwok people living there. Native people had already shaped the land through horticultural and fire management practices, but those changes were subtle compared with those brought later by European settlers. New animals, plants, and diseases altered the ecology, large cattle ranchos replaced more sustainable native practices, and later waves of immigrants, drawn by abundant natural resources, introduced grazing, commercial hunting, agriculture, and flood control that depleted many resources and helped create the urban landscape seen today.