1) Comment on Proposed Clear Cutting Initiative
The City of Oakland is proceeding with a legally required "environmental assessment" in order to proceed with its bid to clear cut the Oakland hills. The process will be complete by 2019. We encourage everyone who cares to sign up for email updates and get involved in fighting it: https://oaklandvegmanagement.org/contact-us/
Moreover, If you do not want the Oakland hills to be clear cut and you do not want pesticides sprayed in our neighborhoods, parks, and wildlife corridors, fill out this City of Oakland survey and make your voice heard loud and clear: oaklandvegmanagement.org/plan-feedback-survey/
The City of Oakland is proceeding with a legally required "environmental assessment" in order to proceed with its bid to clear cut the Oakland hills. The process will be complete by 2019. We encourage everyone who cares to sign up for email updates and get involved in fighting it: https://oaklandvegmanagement.org/contact-us/
Moreover, If you do not want the Oakland hills to be clear cut and you do not want pesticides sprayed in our neighborhoods, parks, and wildlife corridors, fill out this City of Oakland survey and make your voice heard loud and clear: oaklandvegmanagement.org/plan-feedback-survey/
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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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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.
