Wednesday afternoon ten Hillcrest residents showed up with handmade signs to protest the morning removal of a 150-foot tree north of Washington on Fifth Avenue. The decades old star (Norfolk Island) pine was a landmark that could be seen from Mt. Helix.
At the end of the day three local activists (Mercedes Bell, Mary Petruccione and Marilyn Mangion, at right) showed their dissatisfaction in a silent protest next to the wide stump that remains. Mangion had nominated this tree for protective status through Urban Forestry expert Drew Potocki’s “Conserve-A-Tree” program. In mid-July a hospital official had told her that Scripps Mercy was renting the house next to the tree for office space and that the giant pine would remain.
