Campus Set to Clear Eucalyptus Trees

While the 10-month controversy surrounding the proposed removal of 26 coast live oak trees adjacent to Memorial Stadium continues, UC Berkeley has gained provisional approval to prevent wildfires by clearing 23,000 eucalyptus trees from campus property in the Berkeley Hills.

Last year the campus won two $400,000 grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to remove thousands of highly flammable blue gum eucalyptus trees from two at-risk areas in Strawberry Canyon and Claremont Canyon, said Scott Stephens, associate professor of fire science and chair of UC Berkeley’s Fire Mitigation Committee. The project is in the process of environmental review.

The 10-member Hills Conservation Network recently voiced their opposition to the plans to clear eucalyptus, pine and acacia trees from the land, said network president Dan Grassetti.

“From a purely visual standpoint, you land up with a barren area that’s essentially a sea of wood chips,” Grassetti said.

Masses of dry leaves and loose bark make eucalyptus trees the perfect fire starters, Stephens said. Unlike native oak and bay trees, if sparked, eucalyptus trees create “spotting embers” that can disperse and cause large fires.

Though experts have long blamed eucalyptus trees for the 1991 Oakland Hills fire, Grassetti said mismanagement, and not eucalyptus trees, was to blame for the severity of that blaze.

Despite their official designation as an invasive species, eucalyptus trees are an important part of the East Bay landscape, he said. He called UC Berkeley’s plan to remove 100 acres of trees a transitional landscaping project in the guise of a fire-safety initiative.

“Folks who have an idea about changing the landscape have seized this fire issue as a way to fund the widespread transformation of this landscape,” Grassetti said.

But Stephens said that after the eucalyptus trees are removed, native trees will still remain on the landscape.

“By removing the eucalyptus trees, we’re allowing the native trees to grow and fully occupy the site,” he said.

Besides recreation and field trips with UC Berkeley students, UC-owned land in Strawberry Canyon and Claremont Canyon is home to the Space Sciences Laboratory and the UC Berkeley Field Station for Behavioral Research, where a research and breeding colony of hyenas and other research animals is held, Stephens said.

The station, surrounded by blue gum eucalyptus, would be immediately threatened by a wildfire, he said.

Because wildfires usually spread downhill, the campus is concentrating its initiative in areas along the ridge line, removing trees that pose the greatest risk of spreading a fire.

“We’ve had so many fires in the East Bay Hills, and none of these things can prevent fires from happening,” Stephens said. “It won’t stop the fire by any means, but it will change its behavior, and make it less dangerous.”

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