A Northern California logger has joined Berkeley’s Save the Oaks at the Stadium movement. Save the Oaks wants to protect a 200-year-old oak and 38 other mature oaks from being cut down to make room for more university facilities. The UC Board of Regents is currently considering plans to build a snazzy athletic center to the west of the stadium, along with plans to build a connector building for the law and business schools and a parking structure at the site of Maxwell Field.

However, logger Ric Costales isn’t exactly a tree-hugger. He’s not really in it to save the trees; instead, he says:

What I want to see and what everyone needs in these debates is a fair shake, and to make sure the rules are the same across the board. That’s what I support . . . and if the trees get saved, then that’s just icing on the cake.

What I don’t understand is why the Regents would consider destroying one athletic facility (Maxwell Field) in the same process that attempts to booster the athletic community. I love Maxwell Field. I get to see shirts and skins (mostly skins) play soccer on my way to class. I wouldn’t be able to see that in a parking structure.

Maybe if the “high performance” athletic center had glass walls and hot, sweaty, muscular guys on display then the Regents and I could compromise. Then they could do whatever they wanted with the oaks. Trees don’t do much for me anyway.