Takin' It To the Trees in Santa Cruz

By 11 a.m., one person had been arrested, and three people were in redwood trees surrounded by the UCSC police, who had blocked off the entire area and confiscated anything left in the parking lot. The treesitters had been without food and water all night. One sitter, whose platform had been confiscated before it could be raised, sat in a redwood tree in only his climbing harness. Meanwhile, elsewhere on campus, a planned rally in opposition to the LRDP was well under way. Hundreds of students listened to speakers elucidating the numerous problems with UCSC’s expansion plans.

In a burst of energy, the rally morphed into a march to deliver supplies to the tree-sitters. Hundreds of supporters arrived at the treesit on Science Hill, armed with food and water. The first group of people to break police lines was tackled to the ground and arrested, but the crowd was not deterred. As they faced the police, they were met with pepper spray and batons. Regardless, they continued to move closer to the trees, reaching over the police to put food and water on the line dropped by a treesitter, while still under police attack. In a burst of success, the crowd pushed the police line back and surrounded one of the clusters of trees. Cheers went out as food and water were lifted into the trees. The police seemed powerless in the face of the determined crowd and eventually left, much to the surprise of the crowd.

And so began the organized on-campus resistance to UCSC’s 15-year expansion plan.

The LRDP maps out a rapid expansion of campus facilities over the next 13 years to accommodate up to 4,500 new full-time students. The plans include new buildings and roads on currently forested land in Santa Cruz, a community that is already completely “built out” and experiencing traffic congestion, water shortages and unaffordable housing.

UCSC is not your typical UC campus. Unlike UC Berkeley or UC LA, which are outgrowths of suburban sprawl surrounded by university-themed shopping centers, UCSC occupies a space made of meadows, chaparral, and mixed evergreen and redwood forests on a mountain above the city. Only about one third of the campus land is built upon. The north part of campus is undeveloped, with an impressive array of forest ecosystems crisscrossed by hiking trails and dirt roads. More than 500 distinct plant species and an equal number of mushroom species have been identified within campus boundaries. Furthermore, UCSC is surrounded by protected state and city park lands. Upper campus is an important wildlife corridor between the parks; contains the headwaters of three important watersheds that pass through wildlife preserves before draining into Monterey Bay.

All of these things are under threat from UCSC’s ambitious expansion plans. The academic consequences of the trajectory set by the LRDP will be far-reaching. UCSC is under pressure to give up its countercultural, liberal arts reputation and become an impersonal research institution with tall, glassy laboratories that can attract private funding and prestigious faculty. The university is becoming less of a place for intellectual growth and more of a place where one receives job training. The ecosystems that have always been so vital to both the campus and the surrounding community are now appreciated only for the “green aesthetic” that they lend to UCSC’s public image.

Opposition to the expansion has been fomenting from all quarters of Santa Cruz since the university began the planning process three years ago. The comment section of the LRDP’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is flooded with criticisms and concerns citing the inaccuracy of impact analysis and the inadequacy of proposed mitigations. The city of Santa Cruz, as well as county and community organizations, have filed dozens of lawsuits after having their concerns ignored by UCSC, which holds the authority of a state agency, but behaves as a private corporation. In August, a judge ruled that the university’s EIR did not adequately account for housing, traffic and water impacts. This lawsuit is currently stalled in attempts at out-of-court negotiations. The final outcome of these court cases is anyone’s guess, and UCSC is showing no intention of altering its plans. Before giving its final approval to the LRDP, in spite of the criticisms and exhortations of city officials and local residents, the only comment from the Board of Regents was to ask why the plans accommodated only 4,500 students and not more.

Students have heard little about the LRDP and had only the illusion of input in the process. Concerned students were told to submit comments or attend public comment hearings. On campus, little had been said about the LRDP since its final approval in 2006. But since November 7, all of campus has been buzzing with talk of the LRDP. It is now an issue that can’t be ignored. Forums and discussions are being held to further educate students and generate ideas that weren’t touched upon during the original planning process. Professors discuss the issues in their classes, anti-LRDP graffiti abounds, and the administration has devoted considerable resources to trying to repair its image after the police violence on November 7.

By the time the tree-sit had been up for three weeks, the parking lot below the trees had been fully transformed into an autonomous community space, with people camping out to hold it. The occupied space is a hub of activity, with people from many different perspectives united by their victory over the police. The occupied space hosts concerts, discussions, art classes, workshops, potlucks, movies and celebrations. Hundreds (if not thousands) of students and community members have passed through the site to attend events or just to check things out. Forest walks depart every Saturday, with guides discussing plants, animals and local history, while introducing people to the remarkable places that are threatened by the LRDP.

At UC Berkeley, treesitters are celebrating a year spent in the trees. In light of UCSC’s reluctance to respond to criticism, the UCSC treesitters are prepared for a long-term campaign that may take on many different forms before the expansion plans are called off. The forest at UCSC is worth the effort and energy that will be required. The treesitters see their struggle in the larger context of defending the few remaining wild areas that exist and opposing the profit-driven agenda that the LRDP represents.

For more information, visit http://www.lrdpresistance.org.