San Luis Obispo High trees spared from being cut down — for now

Trees on the north side of the San Luis Obispo High School campus that were scheduled to be cut down Thursday to make room for a new building have been spared — at least for now.

Ryan Pinkerton, the assistant superintendent of business services for San Luis Coastal Unified School District, said in an email that removal would not happen on Thursday. He said there was no estimated date for when the trees would come down, but the district has put up fencing around the large oak tree for liability’s sake.

John Salisbury, a neighbor who sat up in the oak tree on Wednesday to protest the district’s decision to remove the trees, was inside the chain link enclosure early Thursday morning, waiting for crews that were supposed to show up at 7 a.m. but never arrived.

He was joined by his neighbor, Tina Hino, as well as Robert Ivers, a man who heard the story and biked from Avila Beach in solidarity. Salisbury said that the neighbors wanted to try to work with the district to have some control over what gets planted between their houses and the new, nearly 15,000-square-foot annex the district plans to build beginning next month.

“It’s gonna come down,” Salisbury said, after he was told that the removal wouldn’t happen. “We just don’t know when.”

This story was originally published July 6, 2017 at 2:45 PM with the headline "San Luis Obispo High trees spared from being cut down — for now."