Great photos and good work. Shame on the UC.

40,000 non-human animals are currently being exploited and tortured in the name of "science" at UC-Berkeley. A new facility is currently under construction at University Avenue and Oxford Way. Known as the Li Ka-Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences, scheduled for completion in March 2010, the facility would expand the existing animal facility by SEVENTY PERCENT. For more information on the campaign to end vivisection at Cal, visit the Stop Cal Vivisection website and take action!

http://www.pixelexdesign.com/stopcalvivisection

Something else about the oaks; Why destroy a potential food source (yearly crop of acorns) by cutting down the oaks? Once learned, leaching and cooking acorns is a simple task, and the results are acorns ready for soup (nupa), bread, pancakes or any other food item limited only by creativity..

People generally may not be aware of this, though as a society we're collectively approaching a food crisis of unprecedented proportions. The rising price of petroleum effects food in many ways via transport, and the future shortages of petroleum as predicted by peak oil experts will certainly effect food availability. The majority of conventional food is grown ONLY because of the availability of cheap subsidized petroleum derived fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. This includes the GMO/GE crops that remain dependent on these above mentioned products. Remove the petroleum derived inputs and the generations of weakened monoculture hybrids WILL NOT SURVIVE from farm to table..

One way to escape this food shortage is organic, permaculture and 'milpa' style farms that include crop symbiosis (ie., three sisters; corn, beans and squash) when plants help one another grow. We don't witness this process of symbiosis under industrial monoculture farms that currently dominate our landscape. ANOTHER way to escape food shortages is to increase populations of native wild edible plants, trees, animals and insects. Specifically here this relates to oaks of ALL species (valley, coastal, live, black, interior, etc..), as ALL acorns are edible once leached of their tannins (soak, rinse, repeat!).

Without ANY needed inputs of pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides, oak trees will continue to produce their yearly (or every other year) crop of acorns for consumption by humans and animals. The more oaks left alive, the more acorns to go around. The oaks are also adapted to their regional climate features and do not need ANY tending (watering, pruning, etc..) as do many other domesticated orchard species of nut trees. So if our modern industrial system were to collapse, ANY human survivors with a little bit of knowledge about oaks could harvest,leach and eat the acorns and live a reasonably healthy life. This may sound farfetched to the current situation of industrial modernism, though history shows that collapse of empires is an inevitable fact, not IF but WHEN!!

Instead of cutting oaks down, we need to be planting more oaks throughout their respective ranges and habitats. Education about oaks would be great to have in urban Berkeley where most people ignore trees other than for their shade or shelter. Students at Berkeley could benefit from having these oaks as a restin' place and a potential outdoor lab to study the oaks in their natural environment..

This website questions why modern humans avoid consuming the nutritional acorns;

"Or perhaps it is because acorns have such a high content of fats and carbohydrates, undesirable traits in today’s culture, but of paramount importance in primitive societies for sustenance. 100 grams of acorn flour (roughly one cup) contains a whopping 500 calories, 30 grams of fat, and 54 grams of carbohydrate. They also rate pretty high for vitamins and minerals in a nutritional profile, truly a survival food of high degree:"

Nutrition Facts:

Acorn flour, full fat;

Serving Size: 100g

Total Calories 501.000kcal

Total Fat 30.170g

Saturated Fatty Acids 3.923g

Monounsaturated Fatty Acids 19.110g

Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids 5.813g

Cholesterol 0.000mg

Sodium 0.000mg

Total Carbohydrates 54.650g

Dietary Fibre

Sugars

Protein

Water 6.000g

Vitamins;

Vitamin C 0.000mg

Riboflavin 0.154mg

Niacin 2.382mg

Pantothenic Acid 0.931mg

Vitamin B6 0.688mg

Vitamin B12 0.000mcg

Folate 114.000mcg

Vitamin A 51.000IU

Vitamin E

Vitamin D

Vitamin K

Folic Acid 0.000mcg


Minerals;

Calcium 43.000mg

Iron 1.210mg

Magnesium 110.000mg

Phosphorus 103.000mg

Potasium 712.000mg

Sodium 0.000mg

Zinc 0.640mg

Copper 0.611mg

Manganese 1.743mg

Selenium

For more acorn nutrition info visit;
http://www.prodigalgardens.info/september%20weblog.htm

My patience with the destructive decisions of modern industrial society is wearing thin, with the exception of the treesitters, permaculture farmers (southcentral farm, etc..) and buffalo field campaign, our society is going to be hearing plenty of "told-ya-sos" from people like myself once the Earth changes begin in earnest (not so pretty anymore!). Every oak tree that is needlessly cut, every bison shot by order of cattle ranchers, and every permaculture farm bulldozed by developers (ex., Ralph Horowitz) is going to come back and haunt all of us in the future. No amount of canned food stockpiled by the wealthy elites will save them either, economic collapse, weather changes, etc.. have a great way of equalizing the economic strata levels we've built between one another..

Other options besides a commercial sports stadium built over a once living oak grove;

What about a program in Berkeley, Oakland and other urban regions to create parkland for recreation and local youth sports teams to play and PARTICIPATE, instead of a high cost security maintenance of commercial SPECTATOR sports stadium that isn't affordable for the majority of the region's residents anyway? Of course create these parks in a region without needing to destroy and kill any oak groves, there's plenty of space for neighborhood parks without killing all the oaks..