Two Berkeley tree sitters climb down

BERKELEY, Calif., June 26 (UPI) -- Two protesters who have been living in oak trees on the University of California campus in Berkeley have climbed down.

Bradley "Squirtle" Costello and Matthew Marks were arrested Wednesday after they surrendered to police, KTVU-TV, San Francisco reported. Seven people remained in the trees after their departure.

The protest against a university plan to tear down a grove of California live oaks to make way for a training center next to the stadium began in December 2006. The city of Berkeley, the California Oak Association and a neighborhood group have also sued the university in an attempt to save the trees.

Costello and Marks were charged with trespassing and violation of a court order against the protest, Dan Mogulof, a university spokesman, said.

Mogulof said that the double surrender appears to show that the university's new strategy of trying to keep protesters from getting supplies is working.