BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – A stretch of road through Bellingham’s city center just got a little less shady.

Several chestnut trees that line Chestnut Street were cut down over the weekend.

The City of Bellingham’s Assistant Communications and Community Outreach Director Kelsey Thomas said that the trees were cut down after the city’s park arborist found two of them to be completely dead.

A few others were showing serious signs of disease and decline, with over half of the crown of each tree also dead with no likelihood of recovery.

Signs were nailed to some of the remaining trunks and living trees on the road, proclaiming “Save our Chestnut Trees.”

Parks Operations Manager Steven Janiszewski said in a statement there are no plans to remove additional Chestnut Trees, but they will be monitoring the health of the remaining trees

Thomas added they will be replanting with appropriate street trees in the fall.

Whatcom Million Trees Executive Director Sarah Hutton said in an email that urban street trees are generally under more stress due to root constraints caused by the infrastructure around them and by their exposure to pollution. The high heat days and drought brought by a changing climate can make them particularly vulnerable to diseases.

Hutton notes that while those observations could apply to the trees along Chestnut Street, she is not sure that this is the reason the trees became sick.