UC-B Police Converged on Grove Wednesday Afternoon

December 13, 2006
For Immediate Release

Police Detain Oak Grove Tree-Sitter on UCB campus
Breaking News: Police Converging on Grove Wednesday Afternoon

Berkeley, Calif.-In the early morning hours on Wednesday, UC Berkeley campus police detained Native American activist Zachary Running Wolf as he was temporarily down from his perch high in a redwood tree in an imperiled grove of trees slated for cutting by UC Berkeley. The campus police then surrounded the redwood tree, ostensibly to prevent Running Wolf from returning to his platform, where he has been maintaining a presence since December 2. They ordered him to stay off UCB property for 7 days. Police had arrived this morning and rousted support people who were staffing an information table under tarps through the rain. Two other oaks and a cedar tree in the threatened grove have platforms in their branches where activists, one per tree, have been holding 24-hour a day vigils to protect them.

UC is planning destroy this majestic grove in order to build a sports gym covered by a concrete patio. This unique eco-system, the last grove of coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) in the Berkeley lowlands, is protected by municipal code. However, UC, the largest landowner in Berkeley, says they are not obliged to obey city laws and codes.

This tree-sit action was taken after the university ignored the concerns of residents, students, scientists, the Berkeley City Council and many others. A lawsuit has been filed by the Panoramic Hills Neighborhood Association to get the university to consider alternatives, and a lawsuit has been approved by the City of Berkeley. Community members have, for years, been frustrated by the University's apparent disdain for citizen input and local opinion.

Attorney for Save the Oaks Stephan C. Volker expressed concern for the tree-sitters and other activists maintaining a protective presence in the grove. He said of the activists, "They seek only to exercise their Constitutionally-protected right to engage in free speech, to peacefully assemble, and to seek judicial redress for they what they view as an unlawful and ill-conceived and [ill]-designed project."

The planned cutting of the oaks has brought hundreds of alarmed local residents and university students to speak out against this destruction and degradation of this . After exhausting many other avenues, Running Wolf and other activists decided to take direct action because UC is stonewalling community, student and even City of Berkeley efforts to find workable solutions

The tree occupation is ongoing, located between Piedmont Avenue and Memorial Stadium on the UC campus just north of the International House and Bancroft Way.
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Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters (BACH)

2530 San Pablo Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94702
phone: 510 548 3113
email: bach [at] headwaterspreserve.org

http://www.HeadwatersPreserve.org