Not completely college football related, but the 18 month protest against the University of California at Berkley's plans to cut down trees near the football stadium to construct a sports training facility might finally be coming to an end. On December 1, 2006 the first of the protesters took up residence in the trees surrounding the stadium in protest. Now, the university is taking steps to remove the protesters. Well, maybe not remove the protesters, but certainly remove the supplies that sustain the protesters and the means for other protesters to join them.
Arborists hired by the university cut ropes that ran from one tree to another and removed supplies that protesters had stored in the branches, Mogulof said. They also removed at least one large structure that protesters constructed high in the trees, but several others remain.
Never let it be said that these protesters aren't fighting back with everything they have, though. And when I say everything, I mean everything!
About 9 a.m., two arborists ascending an oak tree were drenched with a bucket of urine dumped by one of the tree-sitters, to the cheers of about half of a crowd of 150 people that gathered behind police barricades. Other sitters dropped excrement, but none scored a direct hit, Mogulof said.
I wouldn't say that I'm a tree hugger, but I can certainly understand the need to stand up for what you think is right. But man, did we really need to go there? No matter their historical significance, it's still just a very few trees in the middle of an urban area. It's not like they are saving a rain forest. But when all this is over with, these folk are more than welcome to come to West Virginia to protest mountain top removal and try to save something truly worth saving. Although when the blasting starts, you might not want to be at ground zero.
