The California tree that was thought to have inspired Dr. Seuss’s environmental degradation children’s book “The Lorax” has fallen.

The Monterey cypress was estimated to be 80 to 100 years old, according to a spokesman for the San Diego Parks and Recreation Department who spoke to CNN. He said there was no conclusive reason for the fall, which occurred last Thursday in La Jolla, Calif.

Seuss once lived in the town and could see the tree -- the lone cypress in Scripps Park -- from his building. It has long been considered the inspiration for “The Lorax,” which Seuss published in 1971.

He died in the town 20 years later at the age of 87.

The book, which was adapted into a 1972 TV special and a 2012 animated film, was a fable dealing with the effects of greed on the environment. A character named the “Once-ler” shares the story of how he found a valley of colourful “Truffula trees” and began cutting them down for business. The Lorax comes out of one of the stumps to “speak for the trees.”

“I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues,” he says. The Once-ler eventually razes the entire valley and it becomes a polluted wasteland.

The tree has been removed from the park, but the San Diego Parks spokesman told CNN a replacement tree will be planted in the area and the hope is to repurpose the trunk of the Lorax tree.