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After long debate, Ocean Beach Torrey Pine comes down

The 90-year-old Torrey Pine in Ocean Beach is coming down Monday morning.

SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) – A 90-year-old Torrey Pine in Ocean Beach that became a contested issue between the city and local residents was cut down Monday morning. 

The tree has been the center of a debate for the last month as some residents tried to save the tree and a few residents continued to protest the morning of August 22.

The week of August 15, those belonging to a group named Friends of Peninsula Trees said they agreed with the city's stance that the tree is not healthy enough to save.

RELATED: Ocean Beach Torrey Pine: Neighbors agree tree should come down

They said the failing condition of the tree is a direct result of neglect and lack of proper maintenance by an underqualified tree service that was subcontracted through the City of San Diego.

Moving forward, Friends of Peninsula Trees wants to partner with the city to maintain the welfare of other trees. The groups is asking the city to commit emergency funds to the Urban Forest Management plan of 2015 and a climate action plan. 

RELATED: Ocean Beach Torrey Pine: To cut or not to cut?

Jeremy Barrick, a board-certified master arborist and the city's urban forester program manager, inspected the tree with other experts and decided it needed to be removed.

"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," Barrick said.

"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. "In order to extend the benefits of this tree, we will be working with a local artist to re-purpose the wood and work with the community in planting replacement trees."

As part of its plan to address the impacts of climate change, the city is completing an assessment of its tree inventory, and is set to embark on a tree planting program to increase the canopy in San Diego neighborhoods.

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