Tag Archives | Oakland City Council

This Is It! Your Action NOW Is Urgently Needed

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As you know, the zoo’s plan to use the most environmentally sensitive areas of the park that are located on the ridgeline is now running into trouble. Because the destruction of wildlife habitat is so severe and permanent, the wildlife regulators are requiring the zoo to make up for it by setting aside more than 50 additional acres of land. So, the zoo wants to take (for free) even more of our public Knowland Park (land that is already protected as parkland under the Deed of Transfer). This land would have all public access removed from it. This fiasco, as the Sierra Club said, has “gone from bad to worse.” Continue Reading →

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“Zoo Gone Wild” Investigative Article Lays It Out!

Knowland Park from above, © 2013 Steve Whittaker"

Knowland Park from above
© 2013 Steve Whittaker”

The East Bay Express has published an in-depth article about the zoo’s expansion plans in Knowland Park called “Zoo Gone Wild.

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Sierra Club Expresses Serious Concerns about Zoo Expansion Location

Oakland Zoo’s proposed expansion into Knowland Park goes from bad to worse

July 28, 2014

10272777_228030487396164_7927941693625751956_oThe Sierra Club has grown increasingly concerned about the California Trails exhibit that the Oakland Zoo proposes to build on the ridge line of Knowland Park. The City of Oakland approved the fifty-six-acre project in 2011 on a fifteen-year-old Mitigated Negative Declaration. Since then, however, the permitting agencies have provided significant pushback to the zoo’s claim that the project would have no significant environmental impacts. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) recommended that the project be built within the zoo’s existing footprint to avoid significant impacts to rare plant communities and to the threatened Alameda whipsnake. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), meanwhile, sent the zoo’s application back to the drawing board, noting that the project is at best conceptual.

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Snakes, Lies, and Cutting Red Tape: How the Oakland Zoo is Gaming the System

Earth Day demonstration against the Zoo’s Proposal - Photo by Karen Smith

Earth Day demonstration against the Zoo’s latest proposal – Photo by Karen Smith

It is difficult to imagine the Oakland Zoo proposing anything more outrageous than their plan to build an environmentally destructive “conservation” exhibit on the richest and most sensitive lands in Knowland Park, but in their latest proposal the preposterous trumps the outrageous. The upshot of their bold move toward endgame is that not only would the public lose far more park land than initially approved, but all public access to the very best native plant habitat in the park would be legally barred forever.

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A Guest Blog by an Oakland Resident

IMG_20140411_182218KP Supporters:

My wife and I are new to the movement to Save Knowland Park.  Like many people in the community, we thought Knowland Park was the zoo. We had no idea about the amazing open space that IS Knowland Park until we moved here with our two boys in September.  After attending the rally last Saturday, we knew we had to do something to save Knowland Park. Continue Reading →

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