City Allows Hyatt to Cut Down 110-Year-Old Heritage Tree

Updated on May 13, 2015: "Heritage Tree" removed from City of Santa Cruz website

The healthy 110-year-old tree close to the sidewalk at 407 Broadway in Santa Cruz is a Red Horse Chestnut (Aesculus carnea). Wayne Ferrebee, an artist and writer who currently lives in Brooklyn, explains that "the red horse chestnut tree is not a chestnut tree at all; it's a cultivar between Aesculus hippocastanum, the common horse chestnut tree of Europe, and Aesculus pavia, the red buckeye of the American south."

It is a designated Heritage Tree in the city of Santa Cruz, and featured on the city's heritage tree brochure which was distributed by Santa Cruz Parks & Recreation on April 19, 2014 to commemorate Earth Day in San Lorenzo Park. Gillian Greensite of Save Our Big Trees states that it is the oldest of only three red horse chestnut trees in the city.

The Planning Commission and Santa Cruz City Council have given the Hyatt Corporation a green light to cut the tree down and build a four-story Hyatt Place Hotel.

Gillian Greensite asked Bruce Bratton to help spread the news and publish her call to action for saving the tree:

Here’s the contact information for Global Head of Hyatt Real Estate.
Chris Dobbins, Vice President of Development, [email protected] (480) 308 2915

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What do you think? Should the 110-year-old tree be protected?