1) Comment on Proposed Clear Cutting Initiative
The City of Oakland has released the draft of an environmentally catastrophic plan to chop down hundreds of thousands of healthy trees across 1,925 acres of public lands and 308 miles of roadway and to give city officials the unlimited discretion to clear cut any trees or forests they choose without public approval.
It is a costly, destructive, and radical public land transformation that is predicated on the extensive use of herbicides and which will increase both the risk and severity of fire, imperiling public health and safety. And it will result in a whole host of additional and unavoidable harms including exacerbating climate change, destroying animal habitat, negatively impacting local businesses and property values, eroding community character, increasing the threat of landslides, and ruining the quiet enjoyment of people’s properties. Eventually, as a result of the impact of climate change and Sudden Oak Death Syndrome to which all oak trees are predicted to succumb, it will result in public lands that are barren and treeless.
Moreover, the plan ignores the results of the city’s own survey which revealed that the public was against the use of herbicides and the destruction of healthy trees. In fact, Horizon, the consulting company which created the plan, refused to meet with citizens who opposed broadscale tree removal and pesticide use beyond cursory public meetings, while providing private access to those who supported them. As such, it is undemocratic and was designed to achieve a predetermined conclusion unrelated to its stated goals or the will of Oakland citizens. In that regard, it is also unlawful.
Read our analysis and statement in opposition by clicking here.
Sign the petition by clicking here.
UPDATE: Also learn more and sign our petition to stop PG&E from destroying trees throughout the East Bay hills and along 100,000 miles of transmission lines throughout California by clicking here.
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2) Share Our Newsletter
Please help us distribute The Skyline by posting a link to it on community and neighborhood websites and forums, by sharing via email and social media, and by printing it to hand out to neighbors, friends, coworkers, or to leave on display and for distribution in libraries, cafes, and parks. Together, we can take back the environmental movement and reorient it towards its founding mission of protecting, rather than destroying, our beloved forests. Download the current issue of The Skyline by clicking here. |
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3) Contact Public Officials
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf: When Mayor Libby Schaaf was running for office, she refused to meet with opponents of the plan, and she and other Oakland City Council members wrote a letter to FEMA (a copy of which was provided through a FOIA request) urging it to ignore alternative plans which called for thinning rather than clear cutting, promoting a scorched earth policy instead. (510) 238-3141 officeofthemayor@oaklandnet.com twitter.com/libbyschaaf www.facebook.com/MayorLibbySchaaf Oakland City Council Members: Dan Kalb: (510) 238-7001 dkalb@oaklandnet.com twitter.com/dankalb www.facebook.com/dankalbcitycouncil Lynette Gibson McElhaney: (510) 238-7003 lmcelhaney@oaklandnet.com twitter.com/lynettegm www.facebook.com/Lynette2012 |
Noel Gallo: (510) 238-7005 ngallo@oaklandnet.com www.facebook.com/noelgallodistrict5 Larry Reid: (510) 238-7007 lreid@oaklandnet.com www.facebook.com/LarryReid4District7 Rebecca Kaplan: (510) 238-7008 atlarge@oaklandnet.com twitter.com/kaplan4oakland www.facebook.com/rebecca.kaplan.336?fref=ts Sheng Thao: sthao@oaklandca.gov Loren Taylor: media@lorentaylor.org Nikki Fortunato Bas: info@nikki4oakland.com |
Urge them to reconsider and stop the deforestation for the following reasons:
- Our forests are home to multitudes of animals – including several protected species – who will be injured, displaced and poisoned by this plan. It is cruel and inhumane.
- FEMA admits the clear cut and poisoning will result in “unavoidable adverse impacts… to vegetation, wildlife and habitats, protected species, soils, water quality, aesthetics, community character, human health and safety, recreation, and noise.”
- Toxic herbicides made by Monsanto and Dow Chemical are to be applied twice a year, every year, for a minimum of 10 years and possibly longer. Some of these herbicides have been found to cause DNA and chromosomal damage in human cells and increase the risk of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, to cause severe birth defects when tested on poor animals including rats born with their brains outside their skulls, to harm birds and aquatic species and to damage the kidneys, liver and the blood of dogs, the latter being an issue of particular concern to the legions of dog walkers which regularly visit our public parks.
- It is the largest clear cut in the Bay Area in 100 years: over 400,000 trees in the forests of the San Francisco East Bay will be chopped down.
- It is irresponsible to spend over $880,000 of taxpayer money to destroy our cherished forests and poison residents, especially given the pressing needs facing Oakland which go unfunded.
- Although fire abatement is the claimed rationale for this clear cutting plan, it will actually increase the risk of fire. Healthy trees are to be reduced to highly-combustible mulch piles, and by converting forests to grassland and brush, it will replicate throughout the hills the precise environment in which previous fires have ignited.
- The public is overwhelmingly opposed to this plan (90% of the 13,000 comments received by FEMA expressed opposition) .
- Elected officials should consider the considerable public anger and backlash which will result when the plan commences, and hills residents and visitors witness firsthand the transformation of their beautiful, beloved forests to a sea of desiccated tree stumps, mulch and haphazardly scattered logs.
East Bay Regional Parks District
East Bay Regional Park District General Manager Robert Doyle:
On the EBRPD website, Doyle notes that one of the greatest obstacles to achieving the conversion of the forests to grassland is “overcoming public opposition.” And yet in a democracy, public agencies are supposed to reflect the will of the people whom they represent, not find ways to overcome their expressed preferences in deference to their own, unpopular agendas.
On the EBRPD website, Doyle notes that one of the greatest obstacles to achieving the conversion of the forests to grassland is “overcoming public opposition.” And yet in a democracy, public agencies are supposed to reflect the will of the people whom they represent, not find ways to overcome their expressed preferences in deference to their own, unpopular agendas.
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2950 Peralta Oaks Court
P.O. Box 5381 Oakland, CA 94605-0381 bdoyle@ebparks.org EBRPD Board of Directors: Whitney Dotson, Board President wdotson@ebparks.org John Sutter jsutter@ebparks.org |
Dennis Waespi
dwaespi@ebparks.org Doug Siden dsiden@ebparks.org Ayn Wieskamp awieskamp@ebparks.org Beverly Lane blane@ebparks.org Diane Burgis dburgis@ebparks.org |
U.C. Berkeley
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UCB Chancellor
Office of the Chancellor 200 California Hall # 1500 Berkeley, CA 94720 (510) 642-7464 chancellor@berkeley.edu |
4) Help Spread the Word
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Tell your family, neighbors, friends, co-workers, and anyone who lives in the hills or enjoys visiting them about this plan, urging them to contact public officials in opposition.
If you live or work in Oakland, print out the Oakland flyer by clicking here and distribute them to your neighbors, at Farmer’s markets, street fairs, and other places. If you visit the East Bay Parks, such as Redwood, Sibley, or any of the others, please print out the EBRPD flyer by clicking here and put them on windshields in the parking lot and hand to people visiting the EBRPD parks (especially during the busy weekends). |
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4) Write Letters to the Editors of Local Papers Expressing Your Opposition
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Oakland Tribune
talkback@bayareanewsgroups.com East Bay Express http://goo.gl/VAXtDA San Francisco Chronicle http://www.sfgate.com/submissions/ Contra Costa Times ccnletters@bayareanewsgroup.com Tri-Valley Times & Tri-Valley Herald talkback@bayareanewsgroups.com |
Fremont Argus
Arglet@bayareanewsgroup.com Hayward Daily Review talkback@bayareanewsgroups.com Talk Back talkback@bayareanewsgroup.com The Berkeley Daily Planet opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com Berkeleyside editors@berkeleyside.com |
5) Stay Informed
Join our Facebook page.
6) Let Your Bumper "Speak for the Trees"
Help us increase awareness about Mayor Schaaf's environmentally devastating clear cutting plan scheduled to begin in August. If you would like a free bumpersticker for your car, please contact us with your address and we will mail you one (be sure to include your address). Please note that we paid for these stickers ourselves, and therefore would appreciate requests only by those people who live in the East Bay and intend to place them on their car.
7) We've Reached Over 30,000 People. Help Us Reach More
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To make a donation, click here.
8) Don't Support Organizations That Violate Your Values
Organizations like the Sierra Club and Claremont Conservancy embrace the clear cutting of healthy trees and the use of pesticides in the San Francisco East Bay. This agenda is paid for by your donations.