SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Cheri Rae beams as she talks about the Italian pine trees along East Anapamu Street in Santa Barbara, many of which are about 100 years old.

“They were all here before, every one of us was here. And they form an iconic canopy of beautiful trees that give us shade during the day, you know, and let in the starlight at night,” the local historian said.

The beloved tree is a recognized historical landmark on East Anapamu Street, but it poses major challenges for the city.

“They’re very good at growing big, and we’ve planted them in relatively small places. And that’s led to what we call landscape disruption or infrastructure conflict, where sidewalks get damaged, roads and curbs and gutters and things like that need to be repaired,” said Nathan Slack, Superintendent of Urban Forestry for the City of Santa Barbara.

Currently, many of these trees have fallen or been cut down due to various causes.

“Sidewalks need to be safe and you need to be able to walk on them… And when you repair the sidewalk, that often means cutting through roots so you can reinstall the sidewalk so it meets accessibility standards,” Slack said.

Cutting the roots allows organisms that cause rot and wood decay to enter the root system, making the trees weak and unstable.

“I’ve probably seen three or four of these beautiful trees fall in the last five years. You hear the first crack and then I have time to look out my window and see the tree fall,” said Almond Wasserman, who lives in Santa Barbara.

The Commission for Historic Monuments is considering several options, including replacing the removed umbrella pines with other trees or widening the sidewalks.

A total of ten Italian umbrella pines will be cut down this year, bringing the number of trees on East Anapamu Street down to 46.