Local News

Cal Takes Steps To Oust Tree-Sitters; 1 Removed

BERKELEY (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ― University of California, Berkeley officials ratcheted up the pressure on a band of tree-sitters Tuesday, sending in teams to cut supply lines and dismantle some living structures. At least one tree-sitter was forcibly taken down from the oak grove by police.

The action, which included bringing in a crane and a cherry picker to the site to slice some ropes that carry food, water and demonstrators into the trees, came on the eve of a ruling by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller on lawsuits challenging campus plans for a new sports training center. The plan would mean cutting down the grove where protesters have been perching for months.

UC-Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said that campus police were trying to end what he called protesters' "illegal and dangerous occupation" of the trees next to the university's football stadium.
 
He said about 40 police officers and an unknown numbers of arborists hired by the university were at the site of the grove, near Bancroft Way and Piedmont Avenue.

While campus officials said they did not plan to try to yank protesters out of the trees, they made it clear they had run out of patience. The protests began in December 2006 after the UC regents voted to approve the sports center proposal.

"We wish it hadn't come to this. These people have been given every opportunity to come down voluntarily," said Mogulof. "The university has been tolerant and that tolerance is coming to an end."

Protesters vowed they would not give up and some tossed buckets of urine at police and arborists, hitting a few targets, according to Mogulof. An acrid tang hung in the air afterward.

One female tree-sitter allegedly bit an arborist and was taken into custody by police, Mogulof said.
 
The woman, who other protesters said goes by the name "Millipede," was pulled from one of the trees and placed in police custody about 4:30 p.m. Charges may be filed against her for attempting to assault police officers and arborists, authorities said.

"They grabbed the woman and took her down from the tree as she was screaming," said Doug Buckwald of a group called Save the Oaks at the Stadium. 

Buckwald and fellow opponents of the new sports center criticized the university's actions as heavy-handed.

"This is just a further example of the criminalization of what should have been a community planning process. That's the real shame here," said Buckwald. 

University officials said the new athletic facility planned in concert with upgrades to cramped and aging Memorial Stadium is sorely needed.

But the City of Berkeley, a neighborhood group and the California Oak Foundation sued to block construction based on concerns about earthquake safety, traffic, and the oak grove.

The seismic argument stems from the fact that Memorial Stadium, which is next to the proposed facility, is bisected by the Hayward Fault.

State law prohibits renovations to structures on earthquake faults if the changes amount to more than 50 percent of the value of the existing building.

Campus officials said the new facility is not a renovation but a separate building. They noted that the proposed center would not be on an earthquake fault, although it would be near, and said studies show the building would be seismically safe.

On the issue of the trees, campus officials said they would plant three new trees for every one cut down.

Mogulof could not speculate on what would happen if sitters refuse to descend from the trees.

"At every possible junction they have chosen confrontation. We're really hoping that at some point there'll be an outbreak of common sense," he said.

Mogulof added he didn't know exactly how many protesters were still in the trees but he estimated there were about eight to 12.

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