What happened to the trees at People’s Park?

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A drawing of a bunch of cops stand in a line with their backs against a chain link fence. On the other side of the fence, you can see the trees of People's Park. The cops are in riot gear, wearing helmets and holding batons in their hands.
A drawing of a bunch of people sittin in the middle of the road, blocking off the road. In front of them are a bunch of police with batons and two big machines that are poised to enter the park and remove the fallen trees. The park can be seen on the other side of a fence to the left of the activity on the street.
A drawing of two men in in hard hats working on cutting down a tree. One of them uses a buzz saw to carve a wedge out of the trunk. The other is holding a mallet above his head, about to take a swing at the trunk.
Handwritten text that reads: "Community members succeeded in pulling one of the fences to the ground. The riot police left and took the arborists with them. They left the fallen trees in the park, along with five heavy machines, which one UC official estimated cost $75,000 each. The tree stumps leaked sap. At 5M that evening, a couple hundred community members gathered for a rally that ended at the park. They sat amongst the fallen trees and heavy machines, which looked like sleeping dinosaurs. Lots of people got on stage to speak. "They will never know how an unhoused person feels until we reach into they pockets," said Misty Cross, one of the mothers of the 2019 Moms4Housing movement. It felt like a party and a funeral, tragic and triumphant."
A drawing of a group of people pushing up against a fence as men in hard hats use buzz saws to cut down trees in the background.
A drawing of someone standing on the People's Park stage speaking into a microphone. People sit all around the park, on the grass and on top of tree stumps and excavator machines.
Handwritten text that reads: "At the end of the rally, someone called for the crowd to move the fallen trees to the edges of the park, to make the inside more usable and fortify the boundary with the street. Some trees were huge and took large groups to move. People gathered together and picked them up like ants, moving in a frenzy of tiny steps. They arranged them around the park like a halo, piling twigs and branches on top. At the end of the day on August 3, there were about 33 trees left standing at People's Park. In the following week, an Alameda County Superior Court Judge issued at stay on construction, meaning the university cannot continue to build—or otherwise alter the site—until an appeal is heard by the court in October. In the meantime, people have continued to gather at the park. The fallen trees and construction remain on site. And people are planting new trees, which have started to grow."
A drawing of people pushing large tree stumps all together in groups, rolling them from the center of the park to around the periphery. In the foreground, two people are hugging. There are some buildings in the background, on the other side of a street.
A drawing of People's Park that shows the basketball court, bathrooms, and a bunch of trees: some standing and some fallen down. There are people sitting and standing around the park. In the foreground, someone blows bubbles with a bubble wand, which swirl around the whole park.

Cover photo by Yesica Prado

Cam McCuskey is an artist and gardener living in Oakland. Alastair Boone is the Editor in Chief of Street Spirit.