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Rally At Threatened Oak Grove Welcomes Students Back; Press Conference With Community Leaders at 1 pm Sat., Jan. 20, 2007 For Immediate Release - Contact: Doug Buckwald, Save Our Oaks at the Stadium (510) 845-6441/599-0044 (cell) Karen Pickett (510) 548-3113 Berkeley, Calif.- One week after police raided the tree-sits at the grove of heritage oaks on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley (UCB), supporters of the oaks are holding a press conference and rally to update the community and welcome UCB students back from mid-year break. The rally will commence at noon at the grove, located on Piedmont Avenue in Berkeley, just north of the International House and Bancroft Way. It will feature music, speakers, art creation and games, as well as a chance to meet tree-sitters. The press conference with speakers from UCB faculty including Ignacio Chapela of the UCB Collage of Natural Resources, community organizations in court battles with UCB over the trees, UCB students, and tree-sitter and Native American activist Zachary Running Wolf will be at 1 pm, at the tree where Running Wolf is on an arboreal platform. Country Joe MacDonald and musicians from Workingman's Ed, Rebecca Riots and others are on the program; materials will be available for face and t-shirt painting; and the festivities will include games like low-tech Olympics, and bobbing for acorns. The food area will feature acorn meal pancakes. There are four lawsuits challenging UCB's plans to level the oak grove and build a sports training facility on the site, one filed by Cal football fans organized to "Save Tightwad Hill". The other three lawsuits, filed by the City of Berkeley, the Panoramic Hill Association, and non-profits including the California Oak Foundation, will be in court on Jan. 23 for an injunction hearing in Alameda Superior Court in Hayward. It is a violation of law to cut mature oaks in the City of Berkeley. Proponents of the oak grove are also contacting the proposed sports facility namesake, Barclay Simpson, Board chair of Simpson Manufacturing in Alamo, urging him to support safer alternative sites, since the proposed site is next to the Hayward earthquake fault. "The Memorial Glade, a humble stretch of land, sustains more than is apparent from the sidewalk of Piedmont Avenue. The trees and the cameo ecosystem they hold together form a lynchpin corridor connecting two huge masses of wildscape where foxes, mountain lions and many others find a home. Closing this corridor would reverberate across those wildscapes from the Berkeley Hills all the way to Pinole and Chabot and beyond, to the rest of the network of parks that make the East Bay the envy of the world. This is what makes Berkeley not Stanford, this is the identity that roots deep in our campus history and will outlast the ups and downs of each year's football season," said Assistant UCB Professor Ignacio Chapela. "Those with the power to make decisions should be aware that their actions will be judged on deeper grounds than a five-year budget or a good football battlecry." ###  << Back to Press Release Archive | Latest Press Release | Newsroom Subscribe Get action alerts, updates, and other important news in your email inbox by signing up with your email address here: Learn more about events | See the BACHList FAQ |
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