talk about UCSC's Long Range Development Plan

December 21, 1991
Santa Cruz, California
UC Brutalizes Protesters, Axes Trees with Lawsuit Pending

University of California police arrested 42 protesters on Monday, December 16 in a dramatic confrontation within Elfland, a pristine redwood rainforest on the Santa Cruz campus. Among those arrested in proposed construction of two new colleges in the forest were an attorney for a student group and a KSBW-TV photographer who suffered damage to his video camera when he was manhandled by a police officer. Approximately 100 redwood trees were logged within the 14-acre area by Tuesday Noon. Rains immediately after the recent logging caused major siltation problems, after logging operations directly on the creekbed. Meadows were completely destroyed, with metal-treaded bulldozers being driven indiscriminately about the area.

Elfland, as the area is called, is unique to the UCSC campus. Huge ferns grow in the valleys next to giant trees; tiny highland meadows support deer and endangered native grasses. It is a wildlife corridor and biologically diverse area on campus. Giant sinkholes pock the area, which overlies limestone caverns and has an important and poorly understood connection to the campus underground hydrology. The soil is very unstable in rains and sensitive to erosion. In 1982, heavy rains toppled trees into Jordan Gulch and demolished foundations in UCSC's Crown College.

The area evokes a deep sense of beauty and reverence that has captured the imaginations of students for decades. Elfland has been used as a religious and spiritual site by students since the campus opened. Students make offerings in circles of second-growth redwood "dens" and inside giant stumps, which are often beautifully decorated. Organized pagan groups hold regular rituals here. The area was a 12th-century bead-making site and has been sacred for hundreds of years to the Ohlone Indians.

The logging was preceded by a weekend of protestor activity. Organizational meetings and non-violence preparation workshops were attended by around 50 persons from the campus and surrounding community. An Ohlone religious ceremony was conducted in one of the meadows, people camped out, and all varieties of visitors wandered the trails to pay their last respects to Elfland.

Arriving early Monday morning at the site, crews from the Big Creek Lumber Company were escorted into the construction area by 38 campus police officers equipped with riot gear. Police reinforcements called in from UC-Berkeley and UC-Davis were assigned a two-part job: ensure that the logging proceeded on schedule while protecting the safety of the protestors. Ironically, while no protestors were injured by the logging, at least three were beaten by the police.

Many of the arrestees were assaulted in the forest by UCSC campus police from Berkeley, Davis and Santa Cruz. In incidents reminiscent of the recent Rodney King beating, peaceful protesters were beaten and brutalized. Pete "Peat Moss" Neuhs, sustained bruised ribs and head injury for the crime of hugging a felled redwood tree. John Torigoe, TV reporter from KSBW-TV, an NBC affiliate in Salinas, reported that was grabbed by the neck from behind and thrown to the ground. His producer reported that he had not turned quickly to leave, when asked. His wrists were numb after the incident, and his camera was damaged. KSBW is suing the University for damages.

Several protestors, including the cameraman Torigoe, were arrested without warning outside the posted timber harvest area. In many places, no perimeter markers around the construction were in evidence, in violation of the Timber Harvest Plan, which specifies a six-foot high Cyclone fence.

The forest was logged on Monday morning to circumvent the possibility that a temporary restraining order might be issued by Superior Court Judge Stevens. A student group, The Coalition to Move Colleges Nine and Ten, had filed a lawsuit to stop the construction, arguing that the University had violated its own Timber Harvest Plan and Environmental Impact Report. According to Debbie Malkin, attorney for the students, the university ordered the logging operation for Monday morning only after she had notified them on Friday of her intent to file for the TRO. When the TRO was denied on Tuesday morning, nearly all the trees were already cut. The controversy has gone on since the University's approval in 1988 of the LRDP (long range development plan). The UC produced and approved its own flawed Environmental Impact Report. Throughout the planning process students have protested and attempted to make their voices heard, but have been stonewalled by an administration and planning process which left many important questions unaddressed. The spiritual value of the site was completely ignored, and environmental issues were smoothed over. The hydrology of the site and the effect of new colleges on wildlife corridors were addressed inadequately. The project went ahead during Christmas break during massive student opposition and a 40% chance of rain in the forecast. A 30% chance of rain should be sufficient to delay logging, according to the Timber Harvest Plan filed by the university. No fence was around the site, as called for in the THP. Severe erosion and siltation occurred during the rains.

The construction of the colleges will bring over 2,000 new students to the area without a corresponding increase in staff, transportation, or funding for student services. Campus overcrowding will be exacerbated by this expensive project in the midst of a state budget crunch. Since construction of the dorms will be paid out of student dorm fees, a shared room on campus will cost as much as $600 a month, putting pressure on low income students and housing prices in town. A number of less-expensive alternative sites have been suggested for the colleges, including Santa Cruz's earthquake- ravaged downtown. A college on this site would protect the campus environ- ment while revitalizing the devastated downtown economy.

Facing the worst economic crisis in its 123-year history, the University of California is on a paradoxical growth plan for its Santa Cruz campus. The College Nine and Ten construction project is a top budget priority for the University of California Regents this year. "Needing" to add another 4,000 students by the year 2005, to meet growth guidelines, UCSC campus administrators prefer to build first and ask questions about the impacts later. Interim Chancellor Pister, ignorant of the culture and environmental ethos of his UCSC campus, proposes irreparable harm for his short two-year term of office.

The logged forest areas do not cover the Northeast section for which a separate Timber Harvest Plan must be prepared. Nor have trees yet been cleared in the College Ten area; nobody knows where the money will come from to pay for the entire project. And with the grave state of the state budget, itself facing a projected $7 billion deficit, UC can anticipate future cuts in its annual contribution from the state legislature of over $1 billion.

************************************************************************
Although a cut of a portion of the proposed site has already taken place, most of it remains pristine. Many sacred tree circles and rare plants remain in areas still planned to be cut.

The Coalition to Move Colleges Nine and Ten is in need of legal advice and resources to prosecute its lawsuit against the University, to defend those arrested, and to stand up against police violence. Please contact us if you have any questions or if your group can offer any assistance.

** End of text from cdp:en.caforest **

..then 20% of you protesting that the University is too big wouldn't be here to protest that the University is too big.

Beautiful irony.

If you don’t like the idea of the university expanding, then simply don’t come here. Let your space go to a student who does want it!

The irony of students protesting the expansion of a university that had to cut down trees and such to get where it is now is perfect irony.