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Forest Activist ALERT and EVENT NOTICE
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1 >> Come to Berkeley City Council Meeting Tuesday Sept. 4 to speak
for the OAKS !!
2 >> Not One But TWO events for the WILD BUFFALO !!
<::><::> OAK GROVE FENCED, TREE SITTERS REMAIN
TELL CITY OF BERKELEY NOT TO CAVE!!
As many of you no doubt know, UC police launched a raid on the
endangered memorial oak grove in Berkeley at dawn on Wednesday, Aug.
29, where tree-sitters have been defending the grove since December,
2006. Police erected a tall chain link fence around the grove, and
the tree-sitters, just before a community picnic was to be held on
Saturday, Sept. 1 coinciding with the first Cal Bears football game
of the season in the adjacent UC stadium. A large banner reading
“BEARS LOVE TREES” remains hanging prominently from oak branches.
(You did not receive an earlier alert because the BACH office was
unstaffed the last 2 weeks of August, but you can get on the oaks
alert list by going to www.saveoaks.com)
Lawyers for the oaks immediately went to court, arguing that the
fence is in violation of the injunction issued last February, but the
judge did not rule in the trees’ favor. Three lawsuits challenging
UC’s plans to level the oak grove for a sports facility goes to trial
Sept. 19 in Oakland, but a danger looms now, as large as the fence,
that the City of Berkeley, one of the litigants, will “settle” with
the University, which would undermine the other two lawsuits, carried
forward by the California Oaks Foundation, Save the Oaks
organization, the Panoramic Hill Association. City of Berkeley
officials will meet with their attorneys in a CLOSED session at 5 pm
on Tuesday, Sept. 4. Please come to City Council chambers before 5
pm for the public comment period (2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way,
downtown Berkeley) and prior to that, call or email Mayor Tom Bates
and City Council members
STRONG, MAKE SURE THAT UC BERKELEY SITES THEIR FACILITY ELSEWHERE
WHERE IT WILL NOT REQUIRE THE LEVELING OF HERITAGE OAK TREES AND IS
NOT ON AN EARTHQUAKE FAULT. The City should under no circumstances
abandon their lawsuit!
For info on the raid and the fence, see
http://www.berkeleydaily.org/article.cfm?issue=08-31-07&storyID=27901
and
http://www.berkeleydaily.org/article.cfm?issue=08-31-07&storyID=27902
and
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/08/30/18444913.php
and also the YouTube video footage on the saveoaks.com site.
<::><::> SUPPORT THE WILD BUFFALO HERD IN YELLOWSTONE
BUFFALO FIELD CAMPAIGN ACTIVISTS IN THE BAY
AREA NEXT WEEK
SUNDAY, SEPT 9, 7 pm at Ashkenaz Cub, 1317 San Pablo Ave., at Gilman,
Berkeley
Benefit Concert for the Buffalo featuring Phoenix and Afterbuffalo.
All ages club, $10-20 sliding scale donation. Doors at 7, BFC
presentation at 7:30, concert at 8:30. This event will rock!
Info at 510-459-9639
THURS., SEPT. 13, 7-9 pm at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave.,
Berkeley
Join activists for an evening of storytelling, music, and exclusive
video footage shot last winter in Yellowstone during the campaign to
save America’s last wild buffalo. On hand will be Mike Mease,
co-founder of the Buffalo Field Campaign, and Good Shield, from
indigenous funk band 7th Generation Rise. It will be a magical
evening. Free
Info at 510-548-2220, x233