Berkeley Tree Sitters

Tree Sitters at UC Berkeley's Memorial Oak Grove

These images were taken in the summer of 2008 -- some a few weeks prior to the court ruling which allowed UC Berkeley to clear the Memorial Oak Grove. The remaining photos were taken during the weekend of September 6, 2008, as the university cut 42 of the Coast Live Oak trees -- to make room for a new athletic facility.

Tree sitters camped in the trees to protest the cutting and, at the time of the tree clearing, had been sitting in protest for 21 months. At the crux of the protest is protection of the live oak trees -- most planted in the 1920s and ranging in age from 70 years to 200 years. The Save the Oaks website carried details throughout, and now remains as a memorial to the grove.