“Please come speak out against the toxic destruction of the East Bay Hills at Tuesday’s Oakland City Council meeting, where they will decide whether to accept the FEMA grant for the project.”
check out these websites for more information about the project:
http://www.saveeastbayhills.org/
http://milliontrees.me/
http://www.eastbaypesticidealert.org/
(especially: http://www.eastbaypesticidealert.org/wildfire.html and http://www.eastbaypesticidealert.org/wpad.html for the decade long history of this project)
http://hillsconservationnetwork.org/
http://treespiritproject.com/sfbayclearcut/
(sign up to participate in the July 18 nude photo shoot in the threatened forest)
Via email alert:
There’s been a lot of activity recently on the FEMA vegetation management front. For those who don’t know, despite 12,000+ comments opposing the plan to clearcut the Berkeley/Oakland hills FEMA released a final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that called for the destruction of up to 400,000 healthy trees and the application of unprecedented amounts of toxic herbicides over a 10 year period. As a result of this unfortunate decision HCN filed suit agains FEMA in Federal court in March, also naming the City of Oakland, East Bay Regional Park District, and UC Berkeley.
Last Tuesday we had a press conference at City Hall. That night the Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee recommended the Oakland City Council accept $4 million of FEMA money and commit the City to spend an additional $1.5 million in taxpayer matching funds and a CEQA EIR. All this to implement a plan that will actually increase the risk of fire in the hills. Imagine, a City that’s broke spending $1.5 million to cut down hundreds of thousands of trees for no good reason.
Together we have a lot of work to do to raise awareness to stop the clear-cut and poisoning of the hills.
Here’s what you can do:
1. Tell the city of Oakland that you don’t want them to take the FEMA money to kill trees for 2 generations and douse the hills with TOXIC herbicides for at least a decade.
Tuesday June 2nd at 6 pm, the Oakland City Council is going to vote on whether to accept $4,000,000 in federal FEMA funds to deforest and poison the Oakland hills and to increase local taxpayer contribution to the effort to more than $880,000.
The City of Oakland appears intent on clearcutting 100+ acres of forests and spreading thousands of gallons of toxic herbicides in wildlife corridors, recreation areas, dog parks, and residential neighborhoods. Please contact council members and urge them to vote No.
If at all possible, please plan on attending Tuesday’s meeting and speaking. This is your last opportunity to influence the City of Oakland!