POINT LOMA, Calif. (KGTV) - The rings of trees can tell you how long they’ve been rooted in one place.
“These trees have been here easily for 100 years. They’re about 150 feet tall, and there’s no replacing that as kind of our gate guards into the entrance of Liberty Station,” Alex Loker, a Point Loma Resident, said.
On Wednesday, Loker said these two large eucalyptus trees started to get wilted away.
“At first, we thought and hoped that they were just trimming them and then they topped them," Loker said. "They took off the top, which meant that these trees were coming down."
Loker told ABC 10News they talked to the tree service company who told her the trees were healthy but were hired to take them down.
“We have a really responsive and involved community here in Point Loma. So, there was unfortunately just no community involvement at all,” Loker said. “If they’re going to take down the trees we’d like to know why and we’d like to be involved in that process.”
ABC 10News reached out to Liberty Station about the cutting of the trees.
A spokesperson for Liberty Station sent ABC 10News the following statement:
“To ensure the safety of visitors, tenants and property, Liberty Station made the decision, with the guidance of its tree service provider and certified arborist, to remove the trees which have outgrown their locations and now pose an unacceptable threat. Liberty Station was made aware of possible tree failure that unfortunately could not be managed through trimming and maintenance. As beautiful fixtures of Liberty Station for years, sections of the timber will be repurposed on-site and segments will be donated to tenants in the Arts District to create furniture, art pieces, and materials for a community garden."
Loker hopes that the tree cutting doesn’t spread to other parts of the Liberty Station area.
“We just hope that it stops here and they don’t continue with the grove to our east," Loker said. Because these trees are important for noise abatement and pollution and also because they look beautiful and are a part of Liberty Station’s history.”
