By Khalida Sarwari
The last person among a group of tree sitting protestors on the University of California, Santa Cruz campus voluntarily evacuated the tree he had occupied for the past 13 months and was taken into police custody on Saturday morning.
The tree sitter climbed down when he saw police and tree crews at the site, UCSC Chief Spokesman Barry Shiller said.
The end of the tree sitters’ reign on the trees on Science Hill was a peaceful affair, Shiller said.
The tree sitters occupied a set of trees since November of 2007 on a construction site for a proposed biomedical sciences building to preserve them from being cut down. A court order that was issued months ago had declared the tree-sit illegal.
“We had intended to convey that we were going to prepare work on the site during the winter break,” Shiller said.
Tree climbers, who were preparing to cut down the trees, removed platforms, tarps, a mat, blankets, water, food and human waste, according to the university’s Web site.
Once the site had been completely cleared, a tree-cutting service hired by the university immediately went to work to trim and remove trees in preparation for the new building.
“We were gratified the incident ended peacefully and safely,” Shiller said.
