http://sfgate.com/...
The university says it will plant three trees on campus for every one that's removed.
"We have to balance a number of needs, but our first priority is the safety of the people who work and train in the stadium," said UC Berkeley spokeswoman Marie Felde.
It is insane to destroy an ecosystem. An old tree provides homes for animals, and breathes in far more CO2 than 3, (or 10) young trees.
If you care about saving the planet from global warming go to the grove next to the UC stadium and support the tree sit.
There will be a party Friday Night at 8pm.
http://maps.google.com/...
it is a beautiful spot.
"There's been magnificent sunsets," he said. "The moon has been beautiful. People have brought us good food. It hasn't been bad at all."
Three days after they began their leafy sit-in, activists with Save the Oaks were busy chatting with reporters via cell phones, shouting to the festive encampment below and affirming their vow not to come down unless UC scraps plans to replace the trees with a $125 million athletic training center.
"It's exhilarating," said the group's leader, Zachary RunningWolf, a contractor and former Berkeley mayoral candidate, who's now swinging in a hammock in a redwood tree. "It's such a powerful form of protest."
The UC Regents' buildings and grounds subcommittee is scheduled to vote today on the training center plan, which calls for the removal, as early as next month, of 42 oaks, redwoods and other trees next to the stadium.
...
i took a poll today on campus. my question was, which is more important? the oak trees or the UC football team? 95 said the oaks, 40 said the team.
Passers-by seemed generally supportive of the protest.
"I think they should put the training center somewhere else. They can train anywhere, but these trees are already here," said junior mechanical engineering major Shauna Kennedy. "But I'm biased because I know a bunch of athletes and they get a lot of perks the rest of us don't get."
In announcing the plan to destroy the grove, UC President Birgeneau said:
http://www.berkeley.edu/...
"I think there are very few sites in the United States that rival [Memorial Stadium] in terms of the intrinsic beauty of the stadium, and we wanted to preserve that," he said.