Locals Fight to Save Oak Grove Threatened By Development Plans Memorial Stadium Development Could Threaten Oak Grove

Some local residents are upset over the possible removal of an oak grove as part of planned construction near Memorial Stadium.

Current university plans for stadium expansion include a Student Athlete High Performance Center, which will be built over an oak grove west of Memorial Stadium bordering Piedmont Avenue.

A group of about two dozen local citizens calling itself Save the Oaks at the Stadium and other environmental groups say the expansion is not worth destroying the oak grove. They say the grove has some trees that are hundreds of years old with trunks as large as five feet in diameter.

"I think it's a little bit disingenuous (for UC Berkeley) to have a natural resource department and take out all the natural resources that are right there for the students," said Janet Cobb, president of the California Oak Foundation.

But Christine Shaff, a spokesperson for UC Berkeley Capital Projects, said the projects are still up for evaluation before being submitted to the UC Board of Regents for approval in November, and local interests, including those of the group, are being considered.

"The people who work on these projects are very professional, and there's a lot of consideration of a lot of different interests that go into them," Shaff said.

Environmental groups point to a city ordinance that makes it illegal to cut down any mature oak tree. However, because the university is a state institution, UC Berkeley is not required to abide by the local law.

"We think when you have something irreplaceable like this in an urban area, that you do everything you can to take care of it because it contributes to the well-being of all of us," said Doug Buckwald, a Berkeley resident and member of Save the Oaks at the Stadium.

Current plans call for the construction of a parking garage adjacent to the stadium, under Maxwell Family Field. But Save the Oaks at the Stadium is proposing to the university that the athletic center instead be built under Maxwell Family Field, leaving the oak grove intact.

Buckwald called the solution "win-win-win," though he did not specify where the university would relocate the proposed parking garage.

According to the university's draft environmental impact report, campus officials are also considering trying to transplant the oaks in question.

But Cobb said transplantation is rarely successful, with most trees dying within five years of the move.

"We are losing oaks because of development and disease throughout the Bay Area. We need to be working hard to conserve these valuable resources, not cutting them down to build a gym that can easily be built 100 yards away," wrote Save the Oaks at the Stadium member Michael Kelly in an e-mail.

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