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UCSC to log 150 acres of trees for expansion...?

by CLUE (repost)
The following email from the Coalition for Limiting University Expansion (CLUE) shows that UCSC is preparing to cut down approximately 150 acres of trees on upper-campus to make room for all the new buildings that are part of the much-criticized expansion plan. This would be one of the most serious logging operations on UCSC's campus in decades. While almost everyone is against it, almost no one besides CLUE is organizing to stop it.

In 1991, approximately 100 redwood trees were logged on a 14-acre campus forest called Elfland. 42 people (including a KSBW reporter and a legal observer) were arrested by dozens of UC Police from Berkeley and Davis as they protesting UCSC and Big Creek's destruction of the sacred Ohlone ground (including a shell site). Colleges 9 and 10 now stand where Elfland was. If 100 redwood trees were logged in 14 acres, 150 acres of logging could mean well over 1,000 trees - mostly 2nd generation redwoods and mixed evergreens.

Once these trees are logged, there's no going back on UCSC's Expansion. For all those that care about preserving the alternative nature of UCSC, ensuring that students get quality education, and protecting the City of Santa Cruz, this logging cannot happen.

Note: It will likely happen during the summer, winter break or spring break - the school has long since learned to stop cutting down trees when students are around to protest.
cowellgrove_s.jpg
You can read more about the Elfland protests here:
http://geocities.com/scpeopleshistory/files/elfland-pressrelease.html

with a few pics here:
http://juteux.net/rory/elfland.html

More on the LRDP here:
http://ventana.sierraclub.org/conservation/local/ucsc_unsustain.shtml

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


From: SantaCruzCLUE.org
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 1:13 PM
To: info [at] santacruzclue.org
Subject: Public Urged to Attend Meeting to Comment on UCSC's Timber Harvest Plan


Dear CLUE supporters,

We need your help to come to a hearing about UCSC's plan to begin logging as explained below in a press release that just went out.

So please come to the hearing if you can and spread the word to anyone who can be persuaded to attend. We need as many people as possible to pressure CalFire/CDF to not allow UCSC to begin logging until we have our day in court.

The hearing is this coming Wednesday, June 13, 6:30pm at the Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors chambers.

Please forward this email to others and/or write a letter to the Sentinel asap.

Thanks,
Don Stevens

NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 7, 2007
For more information contact: Don Stevens, 425-4721
Or email: info [at] santacruzclue.org

Public Urged to Attend Meeting to Comment on UCSC's Timber Harvest Plan

The California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) should holdoff on approving the University of California-Santa Cruz's logging any trees related to its Long Range Development Plan until the legality of the plan's Environmental Impact Report is established in court, says Don Stevens, co-founder of CLUE, the Coalition for Limiting University Expansion.

The validity of the LRDP EIR is the subject of several court suits brought by the City and County of Santa Cruz, CLUE and other community groups. The first court hearing on the suits was scheduled to be heard in Santa Cruz Superior Court on June 11, but has been postponed until at least mid-July.

UCSC has submitted a Timber Harvest Plan to CDF to clear land for the first projects under the LRDP, a huge Biomedical building and a tower to provide building cooling. UCSC has claimed it has no obligation to provide an EIR for the projects, as required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), asserting they are covered by the LRDP EIR. CLUE's position is that no work should be done on any of the projects under the LRDP until the legality of the EIR is established in court. "Once they are cut down, these trees can't be replaced," says CLUE's Don Stevens. "If the EIR is decertified there is no legal basis for the timber harvest."

UCSC eventually plans to log about 150 acres of trees for its expansion projects.

CalFire will hold a public meeting on the UCSC Timber Harvest Plan at 6:30 p.m.on Wed., June 13, 2007 in the Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors chambers. People concerned about the issue should attend.
§Jan. 2004 logging of Cowell
by josh sonnenfeld (sugarloaf [at] riseup.net)
cowell_logging.jpg
During winter break of 2003-2004, UCSC logged a bunch of trees at Cowell College in order to build what is now two new Humanities office buildings and a lecture hall. The largest of Cowell's parking lot was paved over, and numerous redwoods and a couple oakes were cut down. Additionally, a nice grassy area where students used to enjoy playing frisbee, soccer and other games was built on.

This picture were taken on January 9, 2004. It shows some of the trees that were cut down, but there were a lot of other stumps that I couldn't get in the frame. The parking lot in the background is about where the new Humanities 1 office building is, while the stumps in the foreground is the general area of the new lecture hall.

Part of the way in which UCSC cuts down trees and expands is that they leave a few large trees around, so when the buildings are up and a new wave of students come in, they don't know what used to be there before. These new students may see the buildings as beautiful, but those of us that were around prior to or during the logging think of the new buildings an eyesore.
§McHenry Library expansion
by josh sonnenfeld (sugarloaf [at] riseup.net)
mchenry_1.jpg
The following three photos were taken in October of 2005, after trees were cut down to expand the McHenry library. If you look at the plans for the new library, you'll see that UCSC wants to create a grass lawn: http://library.ucsc.edu/mcadd/docs/watercolor_sw.jpg

Lawns can be nice.. but we're in the middle of a forest!

While both the Cowell and the McHenry logging are very small-scale, and no where near the 150 acres of North Campus forest logging being discussed, they're the most recent projects of campus expansion.
§McHenry 2
by josh sonnenfeld (sugarloaf [at] riseup.net)
mchenry_2.jpg
McHenry expansion photo #2.
§McHenry 3
by josh sonnenfeld (sugarloaf [at] riseup.net)
mchenry_3.jpg
McHenry expansion photo #3.

How old are these trees? Older than the university and all its administrators, I would imagine.
§Stop UC Expansion, Save the Forest
by josh sonnenfeld (sugarloaf [at] riseup.net)
stop_expansion_1.jpg
I saw this stencil at UCSC a couple years ago, about the time when the trees were cut down for McHenry Library's expansion. Who knows who put it up - there hasn't been much in the way of organized student opposition to expansion (even though we're almost all against it). Except the kids concerned about Tree 9 that is...
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