Council ignored tree advice
Queenstown’s famed poplar trees have crushed cars, damaged a motel and killed a man, but the council still won’t test the internal rot of the tree trunks.
A High Court judgement earlier this year found the Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) liable for $64,000 worth of damage to Lakeside Motel after a rotten 120-year-old, 30m tall poplar snapped in high winds and crashed onto the motel in 2014.
Passers-by were forced to run in fear when the poplar fell. It was one of 23 in St Omer Park reserve alongside Lake Wakatipu in central Queenstown.
In her judgement Justice Helen Cull said the council knew the aged Lombardy poplar trees were a risk but failed to undertake internal testing to identify the extent of decay and did not undertake a phased felling programme as recommended. She also noted the council did not undertake internal testing when it knew the testing would identify the extent of internal decay in the tree. ‘‘Overall, the council failed to take a risk assessment approach to managing its hazardous trees,’’ Cull said.
She noted that prior to 2014 three trees near Queenstown had fallen, causing extensive damage, and a fatality in September 2009. Farmer Russell Liggett died when a rotting poplar on Speargrass Flat Rd fell in high winds and crushed his car.
Council representatives told The Press in an email they were unable to explain why it did not undertake testing and felling as recommended in 2007.
‘‘This is because the staff involved at the time referred to are no longer in the council’s employment and information about considerations undertaken at the time cannot be retrieved.’’
They also confirmed internal decay testing equipment would not be used during annual ‘‘visual’’ inspections of the 20 or so poplar trees remaining in St Omer Park. The equipment would be used ‘‘should any tree raise concern’’.
The trees at Speargrass Flat Rd were in private ownership and not the council’s responsibility, the email said. ‘‘Regardless, QLDC have had these private trees assessed and inspected and should any tree be found to be potentially hazardous, the tree owner will be made aware in order that suitable remedial works may be undertaken.’’
The council’s arboricultural contractor Recreational Services also monitored poplar trees in Wanaka, Lake Hayes and Kingston, on behalf of council.
Websites suggest Lombardy poplar trees live between 10 and
50 years. They become weak after rotting from the inside.
Many of the trees around Queenstown were planted more than 100 years ago but are valued for their ‘‘aesthetic and architectural significance’’ according to a report by arborist David Finlin.
The Lake Esplanade trees feature regularly in photographs of central Queenstown while those lining Speargrass Flat Rd are well known to film makers who have employed the dappled light of the poplars in more than 30 television commercials.
Despite their popularity, they have caused many problems in recent years.
Two years before the death of Russell Liggett in December 2007, the council had agreed to chop down 18 of the 40m Lombardy poplar trees on Speargrass Flat Rd because of internal rot but following a further report decided to monitor the trees only.
The trees identified did not cause the death of Liggett but after his death the council was advised to remove 66 rotting poplar trees along the same stretch of road. It rejected the proposal and instead resolved to have trees tested by resistograph for internal decay. After another of the Speargrass Flat poplars fell in
2009, a new report went to council saying that 69 of 75 trees were unsafe.