41 Trees Destroyed in People’s Park by UC Berkeley in Early Morning “Deferred Maintenance”

People’s Park, Berkeley, California, December 28, 2018

(This post will get ongoing updates.)

Tree Stump – People’s Park , December 28, 2018

I was up really early this morning — started hearing vehicles around the Park around 4:30am. I went out and there were workers swarming all over Hate Camp. I started to take pictures, the cops came over, and let me look at the attached “talking points”. They say it is “long deferred maintenance”. I asked the cop why they need to be starting so early, was it because they were afraid of a protest? She said probably.

There was nothing I could do to stop them. I tried getting up close to delay them but they started the chainsaw at 4:56am.

— Lisa Teague

Be strong yet peaceful.  Thank you for being there.  This may be only a one day thing. It could be the start of something much bigger.  I think it’s exactly 6 years to the day since they pulled an early morning incursion between Christmas and New Year’s. Please keep me up to date.

     — Arthur Fonseca

Tree Maintenance in People’s Park – UC Berkeley statement 2018-12-28
Berkeleyside published this article about the action:

Cal to remove 42 trees at People’s Park to ‘address long-deferred maintenance’

ABC 7 coverage of the protest

Just FYI — here’s the Daily Cal story from 2015 when they completed the first part of the tree cutting project: UC Berkeley project removes, trims trees in People’s Park

The People’s Park community is opposed to the construction of student housing on People’s Park.

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