Plan to cut down trees in East Bay Hills under public review

BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) -- Tens of thousands of trees are on the chopping block in the East Bay. But on Saturday morning, neighbors had one final chance to speak out about the project that will eliminate thousands of trees from the East Bay Hills.

Eucalyptus trees have taken over the East Bay Hills and now U.C. Berkeley, Oakland and the East Bay Regional Parks have a plan to remove about 80,000 of the non-native trees.

They say eucalyptus trees can burn explosively. U.C. Berkeley wants to replace the trees with native species.

"These are much lower trees, they don't have the same bark shedding characteristics," U.C. Berkeley Environmental Projects Manager Tom Klatt said. "They put far less litter out per acre per year in terms of ground fuels."

Local conservationists say fire risk could be reduced by simply removing the undergrowth while preserving the tree canopy.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency held a public meeting at Claremont Middle School in Oakland on Saturday at 10 a.m.

FEMA will also accept written comments until June 17.

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