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New Fence Under Construction at UC Berkeley Oak Grove

A construction crew is erecting a second fence in front of the oak grove near Memorial Stadium in anticipation of a judge's ruling on lawsuits seeking to block the proposed athletic center on the site.

UC Police arrived at about 8:00 a.m. this morning and set up a barricade around a 15-person construction crew while they began assembling the fence. The crew jack-hammered posts into the ground about one foot from the sidewalk at the grove's edge.

In a Nov.7 letter to Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller, university attorney Charles Olson said the fence was the first step in the process of removing the tree-sitters "without unnecessary risk" to protesters or security personnel.

Campus officials said Miller's ruling could come as early as Wednesday.

In the meantime, officials said the new fence will prevent protest supporters from moving in and out of the grove freely. A tree many people climbed to scale the first fence, for instance, will be enclosed by the second.

However, earlier today tree-sitters could be seen entering the tree grove by climbing a telephone poll on city property. They were then able to climb through the trees and reach the large platforms originally erected in December and first surrounded by a fence in August.

Ground-supporters of the protesters could also be seen handing out food and other supplies to the tree-sitters.

Although Dan Mogulof, campus executive director of public affairs, said officials will continue to allow the delivery of supplies to protesters, he said the policy will be re-evaluated after the ruling, regardless of the case's outcome.

The front of the new fence, which appears to be the same height as the first one, extends from near the International House to the grove's northern edge.

"If people in the trees continue to defy state law, local ordinances, campus regulations and court orders, we need to have the pieces in place to secure the area and enforce the law," Mogulof said.

When the campus installed the first fence in August, plaintiffs in the case felt it may have been in violation of the injunction placed on construction by Miller in the area near Memorial Stadium. At the time, Miller ruled it was not.

Unlike the first fence, the new fence has nothing to do with separating protesters from football fans, who are again expected to fill Memorial Stadium at Cal's final home football game of the season Saturday, Mogulof said. The stadium walkway will remain open.

More will be done to secure the area before Wednesday, but not before the game, Mogulof said. He said he could not elaborate about what those measures would be.

About 25 police officers were guarding construction. Mogulof said he could not discuss further police tactics until after the ruling's release.

One option being considered is the placing of barbed wire on the top of the fence, although Mogulof said that it was unlikely to be put up today. He added that he could not confirm the cost of construction until its completion.

"We are still going to give (the protesters) every opportunity to come down voluntarily," he said.

Mike Kelly, a member of the Panoramic Hill Association, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said he did not feel the new fence was in violation of the injunction on construction.

Doug Buckwald, director of Save the Oaks at the Stadium, another plaintiff, said he agreed that the latest fence was not a violation of the injunction, even if the placement was somewhat convenient.

"It looks to me like (the new fence) is at the perimeter they would want for a construction project," he said. "So they may not be entirely transparent for their reasons for erecting the fence at this point."

Tree-sitters and their supporters, more than 20 of whom came to the grove, are continuing to call more people to the scene to express their anger.

At one point this morning, tree-sitters could reach a jackhammer being used to drive two of the poles into the ground. They forced construction workers to skip those poles, which the crew later returned to and finished positioning.

Zachary RunningWolf, one of the protest's leaders, condemned the university again today for violating what he says is a sacred Native American burial ground.

"Guantanamo Berkeley is expanding," he said.

UC Berkeley senior Marcella Sadlowski, who supports the tree-sitters, also criticized the new fence.

"They're wasting our money, our tuition," she said. "The university is acting with impunity. The people in the trees have hearts."

Campus officials said construction could continue into tomorrow. They hope to finish the front of the second fence today.

Protest supporters said they plan to hold a rally at 4:30 p.m. this afternoon at the grove.

Many protesters said they felt a violent protest at UC Santa Cruz yesterday foreshadowed what could happen at the protest in Berkeley.

In Santa Cruz, protesters and tree-sitters objecting to planned development there were confronted by police. Many protesters were hit with pepper spray by police and six people, mostly students, were arrested, according to a representative of the protest in Santa Cruz.

Campus officials said they want to avoid confrontation.

"Any decision we make will have an overriding desire to prevent injury to protesters and police," Mogulof said.

Stephanie Ludwig and Jane Shin of The Daily Californian contributed to this report.

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