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Indybay Feature

Memorial Oak Grove Cut Down

by tristan
It is a time for tears. The trees are gone.
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Starting on Friday (9/6/08) and continuing now the Memorial oak Grove has been cut and is being chipped up. All of the trees that they plan to cut are down except for the Redwood that still has four tree sitters in it. They have left a single line of trees along the road as an aesthetic screen. Please come by to support the tree sitters. They are getting no more food and water but are determined to hold out for longer. We need to support them if there is an extraction!

Now is the time for tears. We fought for the trees for 21 months. Many of us gave much of our time, energy and money to this struggle. Others were able to give less but it still meant so much to us. We loved those trees. We got to know them as individuals. There was lichen on the tops of the branches and fine white mold and insects on the bottoms of the branches. Now they are only names that a few of us remember; Atlantica, Koruna, In between, Okie Doke, Lower Diodar, Red Palace, Honamon, Little Oak, Twin and many more. I remember when the fox used to be around, the turkeys, the squirrels, the butterflies during the June 17 extraction. I remember the Chestnut-backed Chickadee that landed on me when I was sick. Now they are gone. The trees are dead and the animals have no home, no food or place to be. And where will we go, now that our healing space is gone. it meant so many things to so many people.

But all is not lost. The struggle was always about much more than 44 trees. Even when we loved those trees so much. The struggle was to change the world, and we started in an oak grove. It was beautiful and gave form to our hopes, our desires. Now we move on and like ripples in a pond our energy moves outward. There are many new place to fight for, to enjoy, to heal. Many of us thought that we might loose the trees. What we will never loose is the experiences, the skills we learned, the friends we made and the new ways that we learned to see the world. We saw things as much bigger than ourselves, we shared, we risked our lives and freedom. I fell in love with those oak trees, I fell in love in those oak trees. My passions and desires filled more than me, more than an oak grove. We have made but a small start. Now comes the time for the new struggle to begin.
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by tristan
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Back hoes and the pile of chips that is now the Oak Grove.
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by tristan
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Police guard an empty space where the trees used to be.
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by tristan
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Police arrest Oak Grove organizer Ayr, for no reason.
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by tristan
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Workers look into the space that was the grove.
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by tristan
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The stump of Grandmother Oak and workers with heavy equipment.
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by tristan
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The four tree sitters, strong in the redwood.
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by tristan
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Logs from the trunks of oak trees. In the foreground are one oak that will be saved and the redwood, to be cut as soon as there are no tree sitters.
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by tristan
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A back hoe and the pile of chips of the grove.
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by tristan
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Supporters of the Grove share their feelings on this long struggle.
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by tristan
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A tree sitter speaks about his feelings.
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by tristan
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A videographer tells his story. See: youtube.com and type in bcitizen and go to channels (not videos) search for his page.
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by tristan
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Another former tree sitter expresses her feelings.
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by tristan
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The trees were fed into this machine and came out as chips.
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by tristan
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The back hoe gathered branches and logs and brought them to the chipper.
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by tristan
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The back hoe and chipper worked away for hours.
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by tristan
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The parking lot full of tree trunks.
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by tristan
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The redwood with tree sitters now stands above the mostly clear cut grove.
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by tristan
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This is the giant pile of chips that was once a healthy grove of trees and home to many species.
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by Berkeleyan
Do you give a $**t about the 10,000 eucalyptus trees that are getting cut just east of the stadium, or do you not care because there is no 24/7 media coverage about that, like there is on the 44 oaks west of the stadium?

Eucalyptus trees are a great avenue for trapping carbon and are good agents in the fight against global warming in dry weather areas. Besides, they are nice trees that smell good. Why doesn't anyone give a hoot about them?

Also, you should have negociated with UC to boost the UC Tree Fund, instead of forcing them to waste millions on lawyers on costly construction delays. You could have REALLY made a difference for the trees of UC Berkeley instea of just grandstanding. FYI, the UC Tree Fund is severely underfunded.

Anyway, keep up the good fight, but in the future make sure that the fight is legitimate and worthwhile because you've given environmental activism a bad name. No hard feelings.
UC Berkeley was not "forced" to waste money on security, chain-link fences, grossly polluting diesel generators for all-night 'security' floodlights, or any of the unnecessary construction for a 'high performance sports training facility'. There are two alternative locations for building the facility.

It's a big money grab for those insiders (gangsters/racketeers) that suck up to the money-printing power-trippers in 'government' and their corporate friends. This blatant social corruption. UC Berkeley loves to repeat the trivial stuff to divert attention from their environmental/social crimes. The insipid bulk of comments on SFGate.com are clearly the work of mental midgets, working for 'the man'. They're like little rats in a conceptual cage, pressing the lever for their sugar water fix.

A bicycle is a high performance sports training vehicle. We have more than enough concrete and asphalt. It's absolutely mind-numbing, but that's what the 'system' loves: Brain dead sheeple, sugar water and junk food addicts. Boob-tube worshippers. More steering wheeling slavery for you folks. Wake up!

Do your homework!
http://ClimateCodeRed.net The Case for Emergency Action
http://LifeAfterTheOilCrash.net
http://BicycleCity.com
http://PostCarbon.org
http://350.org
http://CarFree.com
http://EcoCityBuilders.org
http://TheCorporation.com
http://CorpWatch.org
http://CorporateCrimeReporter.com

UC Berkeley football coach Jeff Tedford made $2.8 million last year; that is obscene payola!

We need environmental justice! We need social justice!
by ryuuki
Hey Berkeleyan, it doesn't do a lot of good to sit there behind your keyboard and tell people what they "should have" done months or years past. It's more tha useless, it's annoying as well.

Regarding the eucalyptus, they are a highly flammable, invasive, non-native species that provides little value to CA wildlife (as opposed to redwoods, laurels or native oaks), and in fact frequently kills many species of native birds. They are thirsty as well, consuming tens of thousands of gallons of water a day. See http://magazine.audubon.org/incite/incite0201.html for more.
by James
It is extremely painful to see the Oak grove, and the music of the eco corridor destroyed. The trees in Strawberry Canyon sing one song, but no more.

A very sad end to nearly two years of resistance. (May the four remaining residents stand strong). Cal's student body was compliant and apathetic throughout. More beers, kids?

I missed the chance to go up. That one won't be coming back. My less than daily involvement- I saw only the chipped corpses on Sunday.

This gym will be used by about 1% of the Cal student body. Great for students.

Is football spending analogous to defense spending? Phallo centric, expensive warfare, testosterone poisoned. 2.8 million dollar football coaches, $15,000 graduate student instructors, $8 per hour janitors.

UC must be held to account on their replanting plan. Are they going to get Frederick Olmstead to design the new Grove? oops, he's passed as well.

DAYLIGHT STRAWBERRY CREEK.

by iam
This is an outrage.
Many prayers have been offered at this site.
UCB continues its assault on the earth and people of the earth by also holding hostage ancestral remains of the Ohlone people.
This is war. We will continue to pray and take action for your health and well being in this resistance.

We must hold UCB accountable for their violations of environmental and social justice.

by Been there
How sad to spend so much effort on this only to show up on the evening news trying to extort $6 million from the UC. I'll never support your ilk ever again. How sad to think you all were trying to do some good when all you wanted was money, much like the corporations and UC that you accuse of the very same thing. You might also look around in the crowd on the ground. Seems to me there are more supporters now to have the sitters removed. How could you all be so shallow after all?
by kmcsweeney
"Regarding the eucalyptus, they are a highly flammable, invasive, non-native species that provides little value to CA wildlife (as opposed to redwoods, laurels or native oaks), and in fact frequently kills many species of native birds. They are thirsty as well, consuming tens of thousands of gallons of water a day." -ruuki

You better not mention that to these people: http://savetheborondatrees.blogspot.com/2007/06/historic-eucalyptus-trees-at-carmel.html
by Berkeleyan
Hey ryuuki, thanks for the Audubon article, good read.

I agree with most points in that article, except that from the perspective of global warming, eucalyptus trees are superior as fast-growing sturdy trees. Redwoods are definitely preferable, but they don't grow in more arid conditions. In places that do get a lot of fog like Bolinas though, they should definitely replace eucs with redwoods.
by Clemens Schlink
Shame on the officials of UC Berkeley for cutting down the oaks! When will they ever learn?
by Adding to UC Berkeley's list of bad choices
The decision by UC Berkeley to destroy the memorial oak grove will come back to haunt Berkeley in the future. There are consequences to every action, and we will see effects of the destruction of a cultural and ecological resource that the oaks were. People will feel alienated from UC Berkeley, and this will effect their enrollment. Tack on another criminal act committed by Berkeley alongside their support of pro-torture Prof. John Yoo, nuclear radiation waste at Livermore and improper and unlawful storage of human remains of indigenous peoples..

Now UC Berkeley destroyed the WW1 Veterans Memorial oak grove despite the wishes of the last living WW1 vet Frank Buckles, who personally asked that the memorial oaks remain standing. Guess that the UC Berkeley administration couldn't wait another hot second to get their money into the new training gym..

Am not usually one to wish bad things happen to innocent people, though in this case i certainly wish that if and when the next earthquake hits the Bay Area, that the loss of the oak tree roots as source of stability for the slope will be felt by the athletes training in their fancy new gym, and all that money spent on the new gym by UC Berkeley will be lost in a pile of rubble..

"Be careful what you wish for cause you just might get it, you just might get it." are lyrics from a recent pop song. This is fine by me, as i myself won't ever set foot in the new UC Berkeley gym, so i don't give a flying fuck what happens to it during or after the quake. Good luck to anyone naive enough to believe that this gym will be safe in the event of an earthquake. Guess i'm just a cold-hearted, bitter and angry person by now, though we can all thank the arrogance, greed and ignorance of the UC Berkeley establishment for making me (and some others) this way..

Consider this an online "curse" placed upon the training gym for the choices made by the UC Berkeley administration based on pure greed. People in the establishment need to learn that there are consequences for their actions, and destroying a sacred grove of oak trees will certainly not go without some response from nature in the future..

BTW, eucalyptus trees are great in Australia, where they are originally from. Why is it so difficult for people here in the U.S. to honor the indigenous trees (oaks, redwoods, cottonwoods, etc...) that have evolved and adapted to the ecosystem here naturally, instead of always planting exotics like eucalyptus that only causes more ecological problems??
by Dumpster Muffin
Listen Adding to UC Berkeley's list of bad choices, I understand your anger. But the thing that disturbs me is that you're actually wishing for innocent people to die for UC's bad choices. Look, this ain't "Ænima" by Tool and even if it was, consequences would be felt disproportionately in Los Angeles instead of in Berkeley. I think we have to have future civilized debates about this instead of resorting to the bitter "a curse upon ye!" approach.

Much love, fruit and granola.

Dumpster Muffin
by Stix
thank you "oak grove" for opening my eyes and making me understand that this is a one people strugle....and that we can act on our own...and thank you to my treeple Family.....Ill never forget you all ......and to all the sheeple(may you open your eyes and see what really happened here)...
by Stix
thank you "oak grove" for opening my eyes and making me understand that this is a one people struggle.......and thank you to my treeple Family.....Ill never forget you ...you all will always have a special place in my heart...and to all the sheeple(may you open your eyes and see what really happened here)...
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