On Thursday, Aug. 11, City of San Diego alerted community members that a failing Torrey pine tree would be removed from 4652 Saratoga Ave. in Ocean Beach on Friday, Aug. 12, starting at 7 a.m. But Ocean Beach residents had other ideas. Activists joined forces to call, cajole and cutoff the city before any chainsaws ever arrived on Saratoga Avenue. By Friday morning, the tree removal had been postponed again – maybe permanently or maybe not. “In light of the recent independent arborist’s analysis of Esperanza, the Torrey pine tree on Saratoga Avenue in Ocean Beach, Friends of Peninsula Trees now agrees with City’s concerns that the tree is not healthy enough to be saved,” the Friends of Peninsula Trees group posted on its Facebook page earlier this week. “The failing condition of the tree is directly as a result of the neglect, improper maintenance and the unqualified tree service that was subcontracted through the City of San Diego. The City has not adhered to its own public tree policy, which led to this unfortunate situation,” according to Friends of Peninsula Trees. But there are other voices within the community who are still against the removal of the tree – so the saga continues. The Torrey pine is 73 feet tall, more than 90 years old, and adjacent to where two other large Torrey pine trees were removed after one of this winter’s El Niño storms caused them to uplift and actively fail. “Public safety is of the utmost importance, and while our goal is to maximize the environmental benefits of trees, we must balance the risk of trees with the preservation of trees,” said Jeremy Barrick, a board-certified master arborist and the city’s Urban Forester Program Manager. Barrick has inspected the subject tree multiple times, as did another board-certified master arborist. Their reports, along with one from a biologist confirming no active nesting sites in the tree exist, can be found on the City’s website.
Also, as part of its Climate Action Plan, the City is completing an assessment of its current tree inventory, and will embark on an aggressive tree planting program to increase the tree canopy in all communities.
“We have monitored and reviewed this tree for several months and consensus among multiple arborists is that this tree must be removed to entirely eliminate the risk of catastrophic failure,” Barrick said.
Friends of Peninsula Trees has offered to partner with and assist the City to ensure other trees and treasured wildlife are not lost in the future. “This will be the City’s opportunity to partner with the community to accomplish the city’s stated goal for City Urban Forest Plans as a priority,” the group said.
