Update: Letter of Protest over Oakland Zoo’s Plan to Destroy Park’s Trees

By admin on July 10, 2015 in Campaign Updates, Featured on Homepage, Nature & Wildlife, Oakland Politics

One of the doomed trees

Wow. THANK YOU to everyone who sent in a letter to the Tree Services Division to protest the Oakland Zoo’s permit application to cut down over 50 protected oak trees in the heart of Knowland Park.

Over 600 letters (and additional phone calls) were sent to the Tree Reviewer by the June 23 deadline, with copies to the Mayor, City Council, and Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission (PRAC).

Here’s the letter we sent to Tree Services with our objections and questions.

STATUS? We were informed that a permit decision will be made some time after Monday, July 6. Overall timing is unclear but we are checking every day.

We’ll let you know when the Tree Reviewer announces his decision.

Save Knowland Park Coalition

Protest Destruction of Protected Oak Trees!

Oak trees are protected in Oakland as the living symbol depicted in its logo. A permit is required to remove them. Red tags have been nailed into the trees and red X’s are sprayed on the trunks of over 50 mature oaks on Knowland Park’s ridgeline.

Over 400 protected trees are additionally indicated on the Zoo’s permit application as “affected”―meaning they will be close to construction and at risk of damage or long-term decline.While Zoo execs downplay the habitat damage their expansion project would incur if they proceed with construction in the location they have chosen, the devastation would have a negative rippling effect on wildlife throughout the park and beyond, including thriving plants, animal and insect populations, and resident and migrating birds.

This was the public notice.