BERKELEY — Four tree-sitters who had hoped to save a grove of trees at UC Berkeley ended their long-running protest Tuesday and gave up their perch at the top of a 90-foot redwood after workers erected a scaffold to bring them down.
The protesters surrendered to police at the top of the seven-story scaffold, where they were handcuffed and escorted down the structure's stairs to the applause of hundreds of onlookers, some of whom voiced support for the four men's cause and some of whom appeared happy that the 21-month protest was finally over.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, September 11, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 36 words Type of Material: Correction
Tree protest: A caption accompanying a photograph in Wednesday's Section A of protesters perched in a tree at UC Berkeley said the demonstrators were students at the university. None of the protesters were UC Berkeley students.
Hours later, the redwood was cut down, paving the way for construction of a $125-million athletic training facility on the site next to the campus' Memorial Stadium.
"We are extremely pleased that this tree-sit has ended," said Vice Chancellor Nathan Brostrom. "Today's operation was brilliant both in the design and the execution."
Protesters had occupied trees in the 1.5-acre grove since December 2006 in an effort to block the university's plans to build on the site.
Over the course of the protest, hundreds of people spent time in the trees, some for days, some for months. Those involved argued that the trees, many of them 85-year-old oaks, should be preserved because the grove was one of the few natural areas on the campus.
After a state appeals court ruled Thursday that construction could go forward, the university moved quickly to cut down more than 40 trees, isolating the four remaining tree-sitters in the redwood.
On Tuesday morning, a company hired by the university began erecting the scaffold and by early afternoon it had reached the tree-sitters' platform about 70 feet off the ground. The four men then climbed even higher on the tree as workers and campus police dismantled the platform and threw the men's bedding and other possessions to the ground.
Meanwhile, UC Berkeley Police Chief Victoria Harrison rode up in a basket suspended from a crane to speak with the men.
Harrison said later that she had encouraged them to end their protest peacefully and walk down the scaffold, rather than endanger themselves and the police by resisting arrest at the top of the tree.
"I talked to them a lot about coming down with some dignity," she said.
If the protesters had not surrendered, Harrison said, workers would have continued building the scaffold until police were able to seize them.
