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The University of Calif. at Berkeley plans to break ground January 2007 in the southeast campus area to build a sports training facility, retrofit the old football stadium (Memorial Stadium), build a parking garage and expand the law and business schools. To accomplish those plans 38 coast live oaks would have to go. The Sierra Club, the California Native Plant Society, the Berkeley City Council and a citizens’ group ("Save the Oaks at the Stadium") are fighting their removal. The university counters it will plant three oaks in the same grove or just north of the stadium for every oak destroyed. The grove - now dubbed “Memorial Oak Grove” - has 65 oaks, 25 pittosporum, eight redwoods, five pines and a few cypress, cedar, pepper and yew trees. Some of the oaks were there before the stadium was built in 1923, including a 200-year-old specimen. The tree supporters believe Frederick Law Olmsted wanted to preserve the trees as part of the stadium and Piedmont Avenue design. City law bans removal of coast live oaks with trunks wider than six inches in diameter. The Berkeley City Council unanimously supports protecting the grove’s protection, although it has no jurisdiction over U.C. property.
The University of Calif. at Berkeley plans to break ground January 2007 in the southeast campus area to build a sports training facility, retrofit the old football stadium (Memorial Stadium), build a parking garage and expand the law and business schools.
To accomplish those plans 38 coast live oaks would have to go. The Sierra Club, the California Native Plant Society, the Berkeley City Council and a citizens’ group ("Save the Oaks at the Stadium") are fighting their removal. The university counters it will plant three oaks in the same grove or just north of the stadium for every oak destroyed.
The grove - now dubbed “Memorial Oak Grove” - has 65 oaks, 25 pittosporum, eight redwoods, five pines and a few cypress, cedar, pepper and yew trees. Some of the oaks were there before the stadium was built in 1923, including a 200-year-old specimen. The tree supporters believe Frederick Law Olmsted wanted to preserve the trees as part of the stadium and Piedmont Avenue design.
City law bans removal of coast live oaks with trunks wider than six inches in diameter. The Berkeley City Council unanimously supports protecting the grove’s protection, although it has no jurisdiction over U.C. property.
Francisco Uviña, University of New Mexico
Hardscape Oasis in Litchfield Park
Ash Nochian, Ph.D. Landscape Architect
November 12th, 2025
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