Defend Knowland Park! writes: As soon as April 16th, the East Bay Zoological Society can begin sectioning off the combined seventy-seven acre “California Trail” and mitigation sites from public access behind an 8-foot chain-link barbed wire fence. On March 27, fifty people assembled in the Oakland highlands to inaugurate a direct action campaign against the Zoological Society’s “California Trail” project that would expand the Oakland Zoo above the ridgeline into the undeveloped 400-acre region known as Huchiun to Ohlone people, commonly referred to as Knowland Park.

The “California Trail” project outlines a 56-acre public land grab for private development. This open space land will be removed from public access and transformed into a “conservation” theme park under the management of the East Bay Zoological Society (EBZS), a private nonprofit contracted with the City of Oakland to manage the Oakland Zoo. Financial donors include the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation and the Clorox Company Foundation (who will be sponsoring a planned campground within the site to be named the “Clorox Outdoor Over-night Experience”). The “California Trail” exhibit’s website, which has a virtual tour that depicts Zoo visitors as upper-middle class white people, confirms that the plans are neo-colonial and gentrifying.

April 27: Defend Knowland Park! A development plan scouting hike and native plant walk!

Report Back of Defend Knowland Park! Kickoff Action | Defend Knowland Park! A Non-Violent Direct Action Against The Oakland Zoo Expansion! | Keep it Wild! Kickoff Benefit Show to Defend Knowland Park | Save Oakland public park! Protect democracy & wildlife | DefendKnowlandPark.org