Tree Sitters Lose Another Grove

 When Ghandi first proposed nonviolent resistance, he had a contest in his then-newspaper to come up with a uniquely Indian word to describe it. The word was 'Satyagraha'.

Fifty-some years later, someone posted a funny little sign on their front lawn in Seattle. The sign said: "Word of The Week" on top. That one week in the Autumn SATYAGRAHA was scrawled below. I searched two dictionaries with no result. There were no personal computers yet. I could have asked one of the angels of the library system, a reference librarian, but I was a busy man at the time, running to practice for a marathon after tree work on a production arborist crew.

So I simply called my Dad.  He immediately told me about the word, where I'd find it, and then the meaning of another word from the board, KLUDGE, which is an aerospace term meaning 'to patch together hurriedly.' Dad is a former editor, and one of those people who take words so seriously it is actually funny. Like me and trees, I suppose. I could just work with them. Sort of funny how you can end up with several of these in the same family.

So I went to the library and got two books on Ghandi. One was the remarkable In his Own Words.

Ghandi never met the regents at University of California, Berkeley. Had he met them, he probably would have needed more words. Words for 'Obstinate fools who would remove living treasures for profit' for instance. He would have liked the peaceful protestors, Satyaghrahi's, who have been living in the trees on campus since 2006, when it was announced that the grove of redwoods and native oaks would be razed for a new Sports Complex.

You can read a little about it at Tree-Sitters Fail to Halt Construction this site. Tree thugs, calling themselves arborists, helped the Construction/Destruction crew to get the tree sitters out.

A little background. Oaks in California are a native species. These are big beauties more than 200 years old. The Redwoods are younger, but an essential part of this grove on campus.  In California and the bay area, nobody really knows why young oaks are not surviving. It could be that the over-populated deer herds nibble them to death. It could be that compaction for equipment, landscaping, and construction foot traffic kill them. It could be a result of overwatering from landscape installation. Whatever the cause, the oaks are dying out during construction, and they are not coming back. Oh, and a new disease Phytophthera ramosa, is also decimating them, due to longer wetter springs. Some say Global Warming.

Wouldn't it behoove a University to preserve their oaks in this kind of climate? Is it really down to that particular piece of property being the only place in Berkeley where a student can get in a workout? Seems to me there were lots of stadiums, gymnasiums, and open space on campus, without taking down big mature trees.

Once Ghandi was asked what made him think of passive resistance. He snapped "It is not passive. It is non-violent. There is nothing passive about our resistance!" He went on to say it was the only way his country could win against Britain's yoke, without a huge loss of life. Some folks do not know that he served in a war, drove ambulances, and saw firsthand what kind of horror it could be. He served for the Crown. Even then, he was against violence.

Maybe the tree-sitters, trying hard to be Satyagrahis, got complacent and passive. Maybe it takes more than sitting now. I still believe in non-violence, but I don't see so many examples of tree-sitting working against tree removal. It's time to modernize protesting. Trees expand to fill available space. Protesters need to do some expansion too, because the available space is getting thinner.

Take the Iraq war (please). Could Ghandi have successfully prevented that? Three million Europeans protested, non-violently. About a million Americans, including me, protested. The Republican strong suits went ahead. They controlled the press, and who they did not control they fought, dirty (see Valerie Plame). Ghandi counted on a free press to help with his country's struggle. What happens when that's gone? What happens when those who speak out are bumped off?

We can take an example from South America, where American CIA helped oppressive regimes close newspapers, kill detractors, and make money. Or we can take the example from Nazi Germany. Perhaps non-violent resistance would have worked there... But this is all academic. Because most of the Jewish, Polish and Gypsies who died in concentration camps were unaware that they were at war. Most were slowly assimilated, step by step, into worse and worse conditions, and by the time they realized they were at war, it was too late.

I think this is what is happening to trees in urban environments. They are being slowly consigned to smaller spaces, and when a grove such as the UCal oaks goes away, people hardly notice. It's a human interest story.