Tag Archives | Campaign Update

This Is It! Your Action NOW Is Urgently Needed

By on September 29, 2014 in Campaign Updates, Featured on Homepage, Nature & Wildlife, Oakland Politics

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As you know, the zoo’s plan to use the most environmentally sensitive areas of the park that are located on the ridgeline is now running into trouble. Because the destruction of wildlife habitat is so severe and permanent, the wildlife regulators are requiring the zoo to make up for it by setting aside more than 50 additional acres of land. So, the zoo wants to take (for free) even more of our public Knowland Park (land that is already protected as parkland under the Deed of Transfer). This land would have all public access removed from it. This fiasco, as the Sierra Club said, has “gone from bad to worse.” Continue Reading →

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Sierra Club Expresses Serious Concerns about Zoo Expansion Location

By on August 1, 2014 in Campaign Updates, Featured on Homepage, Nature & Wildlife, Opinions & Editorials

Oakland Zoo’s proposed expansion into Knowland Park goes from bad to worse

July 28, 2014

10272777_228030487396164_7927941693625751956_oThe Sierra Club has grown increasingly concerned about the California Trails exhibit that the Oakland Zoo proposes to build on the ridge line of Knowland Park. The City of Oakland approved the fifty-six-acre project in 2011 on a fifteen-year-old Mitigated Negative Declaration. Since then, however, the permitting agencies have provided significant pushback to the zoo’s claim that the project would have no significant environmental impacts. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) recommended that the project be built within the zoo’s existing footprint to avoid significant impacts to rare plant communities and to the threatened Alameda whipsnake. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), meanwhile, sent the zoo’s application back to the drawing board, noting that the project is at best conceptual.

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Snakes, Lies, and Cutting Red Tape: How the Oakland Zoo is Gaming the System

By on May 7, 2014 in Campaign Updates, Featured on Homepage, Nature & Wildlife, Oakland Politics, Uncategorized
Earth Day demonstration against the Zoo’s Proposal - Photo by Karen Smith

Earth Day demonstration against the Zoo’s latest proposal – Photo by Karen Smith

It is difficult to imagine the Oakland Zoo proposing anything more outrageous than their plan to build an environmentally destructive “conservation” exhibit on the richest and most sensitive lands in Knowland Park, but in their latest proposal the preposterous trumps the outrageous. The upshot of their bold move toward endgame is that not only would the public lose far more park land than initially approved, but all public access to the very best native plant habitat in the park would be legally barred forever.

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Knowland Park Supporters’ Meeting Nov. 9

By on October 22, 2013 in Campaign Updates, Oakland Politics

StCuthbertChurchOaklandDATE:   Saturday, Nov. 9th

TIME:   3-5 p.m.

PLACE:   St. Cuthbert’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall
at 7932 Mountain Blvd, corner of Keller Ave.

Parking in church lot and on adjacent streets, good handicap access. Continue Reading →

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The Fight Goes On, and the News is Good!

By on September 26, 2013 in Campaign Updates, Featured on Homepage, Nature & Wildlife, Oakland Politics
Delivering the petition to the Director of the Department of Fish and Game

Delivering the petition to the Director of the Department of Fish and Game

Petition Delivered: Thanks to all of you who helped us get more than 2100 signatures on our petition urging the US Fish & Wildlife Service to deny regulatory permits for the expansion project. The petitions were delivered to their offices in Sacramento (with copies to the state Fish and Wildlife agency as well) last week (photos of our dedicated volunteers delivering them are on our website HERE). Now we have to wait and see. But the best thing was hearing so many messages of support. The petition is still open for additional signatures, so if you missed signing it, please do so at https://www.change.org/petitions/save-knowland-park-protect-oakland-s-largest-wildland-park-from-a-destructive-development

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