UC Berkeley threat

We recently found out that UC Berkeley has obtained a ~$3.5 million vegetation management grant from CALfire. UC has apparently hired a consulting firm to develop an EIR to enable their desire to dramatically reduce the number of tall trees in their Berkeley/Oakland hills lands.

We expect that it will take about a year to complete this EIR and will be communicating the various steps of this process to the public. It's critically important that concerned persons participate in this process, starting with the scoping document and then by commenting on the draft EIR and the final EIR.

While we hope that the university abandons its earlier plans to clearcut the hills, we remain concerned that they will once again head down this path.

HCN will actively participate in this project and may ultimately file a legal challenge to this EIR.

More to come.