A description of the March 21, 2010 event, to be published in the Hills Conservation Network newsletter.
Strawberry Canyon—On the Edge


Drawn by Georgia Wright for the invitation to the "On the Edge" event. Click on the image for a larger view.

On March 21, Save Strawberry Canyon presented "On the Edge," an afternoon of conversations and celebration at Evans Hall, an historic fraternity house listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Evans Hall is literally on the edge of an area of potentially risky landslides directly below the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Dr. Georgia Wright, former art history professor at Stanford University, presented a new video she had directed, "The Fault: Quakes, Slides and the Lawrence Berkeley Lab." The video may be seen on YouTube and on the Save Strawberry Canyon website: www.Savestrawberrycanyon.org.

In the video, Dr. Ignacio Chapela, U.C. Berkeley professor of microbial ecology, introduces the possibility that considerable danger threatens both LBNL and the UCB campus due to the slide-prone hills extending across the Strawberry Canyon and Blackberry Canyon areas.

Dr. Garniss Curtis, professor emeritus of geology, explains that a collapsed caldera of an ancient volcano containing unstable soils lies under many of LBNL's buildings.

Dr. Curtis emphasizes that no new buildings should be constructed above the campus. According to Dr. Curtis, in the event of the major earthquake expected on the adjacent Hayward Fault, it is predictable that dangerous landslides will occur.

After the screening, several experts spoke about various future risks to the University.

The speakers were Dr. Chapela, Brian Barsky, professor of computer science, Tad Patzek, former U.C. Berkeley professor presently dean at the University of Texas, Austin, who addressed the audience via Skype, and two attorneys, Stephen C. Volker and Michael R. Lozeau, who have represented Save Strawberry Canyon in environmental litigation.

Dr. Gray Brechin, historical author and geographer, led the audience in a champagne toast to two honored guests: Sylvia McLaughlin, the environmental activist who tirelessly advocated for "saving the Bay," and Garniss Curtis.

Save Strawberry Canyon is a citizens' group that seeks to preserve and protect the watershed lands and cultural landscape of Strawberry Canyon. It was formed to take action against the threat of intrusive, inappropriate and dangerous expansion on the Canyon lands.

LBNL's plans to develop up to one million gross square feet of research facilities at the LBNL site ignores the unstable geological conditions of the hills east of the campus in both Strawberry Canyon and Blackberry Canyon.

Save Strawberry Canyon has worked to educate the public and to influence LBNL to relocate its planned research and development facilities to environmentally viable, alternative sites.