Berkeley's Oak Grove Spiral Dance Ritual
Saturday, Jan. 6 at 2 pm.
Supporters came out in force today to celebrate the first month anniversary of the Berkeley's ongoing urban tree sit and to participate in a spiral dance ritual under the shade of the stadium Oak Grove.

The celebratory ritual, including testimony and song, was well received by the numerous tree sitters stationed high above. The group chanted "Will we look to the forest...listen to the silence...heal our connection...will we?"

The occupation of the grove is now in its 36th day and continues to draw a constant stream of community visitors including city councilmembers and neighbors.

Country Joe McDonald's "Hokey Oakey" at the UC Oak Grove

December 16, 2006. Berkeley: This cold December day of community celebration at the threatened UC Berkeley stadium Oak Grove brought many to the site where tree sitters still maintain their vigil. Family and friends of the Oak Grove gathered for a day of dance, song, face painting and tee shirt making.

Among those who came to support the two-week long urban tree sit was Berkeley's own Country Joe McDonald. Country Joe struck up his version of the "Hoakie Oakie" while residents and UCB students danced the day away.

A Pictorial Essay : Walk, Talk, Buck the Fence, Ignacio Chapela
What's at stake in the Ecology of Berkeley's Strawberry Canyon?

Dr. Ignacio Chapela, Associate Professor, Ph.D.
College of Natural Resources, University of California Berkeley

The Memorial Grove, a humble stretch of land, sustains more than is apparent from the sidewalk of Piedmont Avenue. The trees and the cameo ecosystem they hold together form a lynchpin corridor connecting two large masses of wildscape where foxes, mountain lions and many others find a home.

Closing this corridor would reverberate across those wildscapes from the Berkeley Hills to Pinole and Chabot, and beyond to the rest of the network of parks that make the East Bay the envy of the world. This is what makes Berkeley not Stanford, this is the identity that roots deep in our campus history and will outlast the ups and downs of each year's football season.

This pictorial essay reveals the wildscape implications of what may be lost with the possible demise of Memorial Grove: what the Oaks sustain.