In Berkeley's long-running battle over whether to save an old oak grove or build an athletic facility, one thing was clear Thursday: Despite a judge's ruling this week, the fight is far from over.
UC Berkeley, which wants to build a training facility for its athletes, and Stephen Volker, an attorney for groups fighting the plan, both say the ruling by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara J. Miller gives their side a boost.
"Here's the bottom line: The judge ruled in our favor on every single point connected to our plan to build the new athletic facility," university spokesman Dan Mogulof said.
Countered Volker, who represents the California Oak Foundation, among other groups: "The court ruling is a showstopper and will require the university to find a new location."
The two sides find little to agree on.
UC Berkeley proposes building a $123-million athletic facility on the site of the 85-year-old oak grove as a first step in rebuilding adjacent Memorial Stadium, long the home of Cal's football team but inconveniently located on a major active earthquake fault.
Homeowners, oak lovers and environmental activists oppose the plan for the athletic facility and the renovation, saying that the stadium would be unsafe, the neighborhood would be clogged with traffic, and the community would lose a rare island of serenity and natural beauty.
Activists opposed to cutting the oaks have taken up perches in the treetops for the last 18 months, and efforts by the university to remove them have been unsuccessful.
This week, even as they awaited the judge's ruling, university officials sent in arborists in cherry pickers, aided by police on the ground, to remove the protesters' ropes and treetop platforms. At least four protesters were arrested.
The university has long been frustrated by its inability to end the protest. Officials complain that some tree-sitters have pelted police and arborists with feces and urine. More than 280 people have been arrested or cited for a variety of charges during the course of the protest.
"We really regret that the situation in the trees has come to this," Mogulof said. "For the last year and a half, the university has been very tolerant of people who have come from outside the campus community and have illegally occupied our property in an attempt, in essence, to extort the university."
