BERKELEY: Getting naked to save oak grove

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 3/17/7 | Jim Herron Zamora

[SmithL]

There was some naked tree hugging in Berkeley on Saturday, even though it was cold out, and someone took lots of pictures.

Seventy-eight performance artists, models, protesters and their supporters stripped down for the camera in a grove of oak trees at UC Berkeley that could fall to make room for an athletic training center.

The au-naturel visitors joined a half-dozen activists who have lived in the trees since December to protest Cal's plan to raze the grove near Memorial Stadium.

Only five nudists actually climbed the trees. Everyone else found it more prudent to lie on the ground.

San Francisco photographer Jack Gescheidt arranged the nude photo shoot as part of his "Tree Sprit Project," a series of photos showing naked people in and around large trees.

"What I do is show people at the most vulnerable -- naked -- with trees to illustrate the relationship and beauty of nature," he said. "I hope to do a quiet, reverential photo of people and trees. . . . Humans are drawn to trees. They are important to us in ways that can be difficult to describe in words. My work is all about recognizing and capturing the power of that connection."

His photos tend to have an artistic, even reverential, tone, and this is the first project to be so overtly political.

"The people up in those trees are not crazy, they are doing something beautiful and important," Gescheidt said. "They don't need to destroy this grove."

UC wants to remove about three dozen trees to build a $125 million athletic training center that's part of a larger project that would also upgrade Memorial Stadium, which is bisected by the Hayward Fault and could collapse in a strong earthquake. An Alameda County Superior Court judge granted an injunction on Jan29

[SmithL]

Photographer Jack Gescheidt listens to a warning by UC Berkeley police Sgt. David Roby.

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Brendan Keenan hangs from the branches of an oak tree.

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Jess Walsh and Doug Featherbeard hang naked from an oak tree they are trying to save.

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A group of more than 70 tree loving activists took their clothes off and posed for pictures taken by Jack Gescheidt

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A group of more than 70 tree-loving activists took their clothes off and posed for pictures taken by Jack Gescheidt (shown here).

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Robert Moonsong of San Francisco removes his pants in front of an oak tree.

[SmithL]

A lot of trees full of fruits and nuts. Doesn't that make this an orchard?

[VRWCmember]

Got wood?

[umgud]

3rd pic down looks a little painful to me. Hope there's a not hole to help him hang onto the branch.

[umgud]

not= knot

[goldstategop]

Hippies rediscovering the Garden Of Eden.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Laptop_Ron]

Beautiful people take their clothes off for Playboy and Playgirl. Ugly people take their clothes off for trees.

I'm sure there's some sort of social correlation there, but frankly, I'm not seeing it.

[burzum]

Who wants that cops job? One day he has to break up commie protesters and the next he has to pull naked hippies out of the trees!

[CheyennePress]

Do these people have jobs? Because I seriously think in most locales that pulling a stunt like this would get you canned... I sure as heck wouldn't want my employees pulling this kind of nonsense and getting arrested on a regular basis like I'm sure these clowns do.

[driftdiver]

"Do these people have jobs? "

They probably teach at a university.

[jazusamo]

LOL!..What a bunch of a$$es.

[barker]

3rd pic down looks a little painful to me.

Kinda like the guy streaking at a baseball game who decided to slide head first into one of the bases.

[umgud]

Ouch.

[potlatch]

The SHEEPLE, nuts as always!

[zeebee]

Moonsong!? That *can't* be his real name, can it?

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

No comment, just my tagline.

[blackbart.223]

"What I do is show people at the most vulnerable -- naked -- with trees to illustrate the relationship and beauty of nature."

His aims would be better served photographing monkeys in The Amazon. Monkeys posses more sense than the turds in the trees in Berkly.

[CountryBumpkin]

Just a bunch of whack jobs with nothing useful to do. So where are these people when enormous hurricanes smash into our coastlines and knock down hundreds of thousands of trees? Are they on site immediately afterward helping to replant foliage and rebuild lives? I doubt it. They are more likely to be protesting against normal folk with the nerve to rebuild anywhere on Mother Earth. I have an idea. Maybe we should raise money to get these people in the trees near water's edge as the next category 4 or 5 hurricane comes roaring in.

[Just Lori]

Got wood?

Got a chain saw?