UC Berkeley’s plans in 2005 for a high performance center near the campus’ Memorial Stadium hit a snag 18 months ago when protestors ascended into the trees on the proposed site. The fight went to the courts not long after with a long-awaited decision being handed down Wednesday. UWIRE affiliate The Daily Californian has been covering the story. The full timeline of the tree-sitters’ protest from The Daily Californian.
UC Berkeley tree-sitters joined by additional protester
A man known only as “Jeff” ascended into the oak grove near the University of California, Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium on Sunday, evading police and scaling into the grove.
A post that appears on indybay.org, which was authored by a user named “Jeff Muskrat,” called for members of the public to climb into the grove to aid the efforts aimed to prevent UC Berkeley from going forward with plans to build an athletic center on the site.
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UC Berkeley increases tree-sitters’ rations
The ragtag coalition of tree-sitters who have been nesting in the oak grove near UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium for 19 months began receiving increased rations from the campus Wednesday after officials determined that the protesters’ supplies were running low.
It has been more than a week since the campus began to supply the barricaded and fenced-off tree-sitters with energy bars and nearly three weeks since UCPD and a crew of arborists removed the supplies of the protesters in an attempt to force them to vacate the grove.
The tree-sitters, who aim to prevent 44 trees from being cut down by the campus to make way for a proposed athletic center, will now receive 1,800 calories worth of energy bars instead of the 1,200 calories they received previously.
Full Story from The Daily Californian
Three tree-sitters remain in UC Berkeley oak grove
And then there were three.
As the bright lights set up to keep watch on the seven remaining tree-sitters in the University of California Berkeley oak grove shone and the power generators churned late Tuesday night, 19-year-old Drew Beres descended from the grove, the first of four tree-sitters to do so in the following 15 hours.
Three protesters remain in the 19-month-long tree-sit aimed at preventing UC Berkeley from going forward with plans to build an athletic training facility on the site, which would require 44 trees in the grove to be cut down. Multiple lawsuits have been filed by community organizations with the same ultimate goal.
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Judge favors both sides in UC Berkeley stadium ruling
The long-awaited ruling regarding the fate of UC Berkeley’s proposed athletic center near Memorial Stadium has finally been released with winners on both sides.
The three plaintiffs - the city of Berkeley, the Panoramic Hill Association and the California Oak Foundation - have in-part won the suit, although Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller said in the ruling that the university’s environmental impact report for the athletic center is in compliance with environmental laws, with a few exceptions.
Since Miller said the proposed plans do not fully comply with either the Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act or the California Environmental Quality Act, she in part granted to the plaintiffs the petitions for writ of mandate.
Full Story from The Daily Californian
UC Berkeley tree-sitters plan to stay after court ruling, struggle with arborists
Up to a dozen tree-sitters were woken up early Tuesday morning when UCPD sealed off the grove in what many incorrectly assumed would be the end to the longest urban tree-sit in history.
Forty UCPD officers wearing hard hats stood in the grove area, securing the sidewalk adjacent to the grove so university-hired arborists could remove the supplies of the tree-sitters, who have been in the oaks for more than 560 days.
The tree-sit began on Big Game day in 2006 when perennial mayoral candidate Zachary RunningWolf, along with two other people, ascended the oaks with hammocks and wooden platforms in tow. Various tree-sitters have lived in the grove on and off since that time.
Campus officials said at a press conference Tuesday morning that they were planning to remove supplies, not people, in what they said was an attempt to get the tree-sitters to come down voluntarily.
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Costs mounting in UC Berkeley stadium suit
The costs surrounding the lawsuits and issues over the proposed construction of an athletic center near Memorial Stadium have been considered by both sides as becoming more than either had bargained for.
While the bottom line has yet to be finalized, officials from both sides said the lawsuits and related expenditures have cost more time and money than they had hoped.
Originally, officials with the city of Berkeley said they were looking at the estimated cost of litigation to be approximately $250,000.
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UC Berkeley tree-sitter extracted from oak grove
As the battle over UC Berkeley’s oak grove near Memorial Stadium continues to unfold, a female tree-sitter has been extracted from the trees after biting an arborist.
According to Dan Mogulof, UC Berkeley’s executive director of public affairs, the woman was on a support line that two arborists were attempting to remove. The woman refused to get off the line after being asked to by the arborists and proceeded to bite one of the arborists in the arm, leading to her extraction from the grove. The arborist received medical attention following the incident.
The extraction of the sitter is the latest development in the day-long stand off between UCPD officers and tree-sit supporters that began when UCPD officers and arborists began cutting down tree-sitters’s supplies around 6:30 a.m. this morning.
Full Story from the Daily Californian