Berkeley...getting naked to save tree grove.

[Clarkie1]

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Seventy-eight performance artists, models, protesters and their supporters stripped down for the camera in a grove of oak trees at UC Berkeley that could fall to make room for an athletic training center.

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Only five nudists actually climbed the trees. Everyone else found it more prudent to lie on the ground.

San Francisco photographer Jack Gescheidt arranged the nude photo shoot as part of his "Tree Sprit Project," a series of photos showing naked people in and around large trees.

"What I do is show people at the most vulnerable -- naked -- with trees to illustrate the relationship and beauty of nature," he said. "I hope to do a quiet, reverential photo of people and trees. . . . Humans are drawn to trees. They are important to us in ways that can be difficult to describe in words. My work is all about recognizing and capturing the power of that connection."

His photos tend to have an artistic, even reverential, tone, and this is the first project to be so overtly political.

"The people up in those trees are not crazy, they are doing something beautiful and important," Gescheidt said. "They don't need to destroy this grove."

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Adriana Echandi, 18, said she was excited but nervous about her first foray into public nudity -- so much so that she would not say where she lives or where she goes to school.

"I didn't know what to expect," she said. "I'm glad it's warming up."

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Shawn Alexander, who came from Fresno to visit her daughter Madison at Cal, was a bit surprised to see naked people in trees.

"I can confirm there is nothing like this going on Fresno," she said with a laugh.

Her daughter could only shrug and say, "This is the perfect 'only in Berkeley moment' to show to your mom."

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"I'm having too much fun," she said. "This is liberating. I feel totally free. I recommend that everyone try getting naked in a big tree sometime."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/17/BAG15ONBKE10.DTL