SANTA CRUZ -- UC Santa Cruz grounds services sawed the bottom branches off a popular climbing tree on campus in August, and students are upset that a tradition has been taken away without discussion.

The tree is in a protected area of campus, and it appears the proper people were not consulted before action was taken.

The 150-foot Douglas fir is affectionately referred to as "Tree 9" by students, and it has become a rite of passage on campus to climb the tree before graduating. It is a Banana Slug ritual, like stripping down to your birthday suit and running through campus during the first rain of the school year or joining the drum circles under a full moon.

The tree is a climber's dream, with level after level of easily reached branches all the way to the top, where those who put in the effort are rewarded with a spectacular view of the Monterey Bay, not to mention the various totems, notes and other items nestled in its branches. Tree 9 has both a Yelp and Facebook page -- it gets rave reviews.

"I climbed it my freshman year, and I always take visiting friends there," UCSC junior Nicholas Gut said. "It's one of those things that's a symbol of the community and vibe on campus. Everyone remembers the time they first climbed Tree 9. It is part of UCSC, or was."

UCSC arborists removed the lower branches up to about 25 feet, a rope ladder and two swings from Tree 9 over the summer for multiple reasons, said campus spokesman Jim Burns.

"Unfortunately, people climbing in or swinging from campus trees can injure themselves. Sometimes quite seriously," Burns said in an e-mail.

"Our arborists indicated Tree 9 has been impacted by years of people climbing it. The organic soil at the base of the tree has been effectively removed by foot traffic, impacting the tree's root system. And bark has been worn away on many of the tree's limbs by climbers, swings and ropes."

In September 2009, a UCSC student was on a swing in a different tree on campus when the rope snapped and she fell more than 20 feet. Medics responded and the student was flown to San Jose for treatment, according to a Sentinel report.

Ground services routinely performs maintenance on campus trees in hopes of preventing such accidents, Burns said.

"We recognize that this particular tree has special significance to some students and alumni. But our arborists believe that the tree will be healthier and live longer if lots of people aren't climbing in it," he added.

Paolo Marra-Biggs, a UCSC sophomore, has climbed Tree 9 at least seven times. It was one of the first things he did when he came to campus, just like his brother before him.

"Someone told me about the limbs being cut and I was flabbergasted," he said. "It was like they stabbed us in the back, doing it while no one was here over the summer."

Tree 9 sits inside the Campus Reserve area, which consists of several swaths of land totalling 400 acres established in the school's 1988 long-range development plan to preserve natural areas of the campus for teaching, field research and encouraging environmental interaction. The campus reserves are managed by the UCSC Natural Reserves department, a division of the UC-wide Natural Reserves. Since Tree 9 is part of the protected area, Natural Reserves and its administrative director, Gage Dayton, should have been consulted before grounds services took action but was not, according to school administration.

"Reducing risks to students and other climbers and being concerned about the health of the tree were understandable reasons," Dayton said. "As the director of campus Natural Reserves, it would have been appropriate for me to have been consulted prior to the actions being taken. The outcome may have been the same. However, having that kind of consultation ensures that our land management decisions within the Campus Natural Reserve are as considered as they can be."

After Tree 9 was pruned, Dayton spoke with grounds services and said last week that since then, communication between the two departments has improved.

Due to budget cuts, a part-time employee who served as a steward of the reserves -- maintaining trails, performing student outreach and completing maintenance such as cutting down ropes and swings in trees -- was dismissed more than a year ago, Dayton said.

"If we still had a steward, I would suggest that instead of cutting branches, that a sign could be put up saying something like The university assumes no responsibility for the safety of those climbing.'" Dayton said. "Then the steward could check up on things and maybe do some outreach with students to educate them on the impact their actions have on the tree."

During a recent visit to the tree, which is the ninth stop along the interpretive trail hence "Tree 9" in the campus reserve, sap was oozing from more than two dozen spots where limbs had been cut. Approximately 25 feet up, a yellow climbing rope had been attached to what is now one of the lowest limbs. Notes and other offerings were scattered around the base of the tree.

"For the Risk Services department it must be a nightmare," Dayton said. "Students can certainly get severely injured or even die if they fell out of this tree. But now there's a rope here. Has the risk gone down? Now what? Do we cut down the tree? Where do you stop? Do we pave the whole forest?"