We all knew it was coming, but maybe not so soon: with the renovation of Alamo Square in full force, Rec and Park is beginning to take down some of the park's trees. Tipster Ben L. sent us this video of a particularly large one being felled this afternoon at around 2pm:

In all, 10 to 12 trees will be removed from the park during the nine-month renovation, all of them for "decay, a history of failure, small canopies with twig dieback and other defects." HortScience has identified 105 of the park’s 166 trees as declining, which means that we're likely to see many more trees come down in future. (Not all of them are sick: some, planted as early as 1900, have simply reached the end of their natural lifespan.)

Rec and Park plans to replace the trees with approximately 40 new additions, but the Alamo Square Neighborhood Association is trying to push that number even higher with its Trees For Future Generations campaign. The campaign is aiming to raise $50,000 to purchase 100 extra new trees for the park, and donations are still being accepted.