Top tree man says the big fig is "perfectly healthy"
Big Fig Tree Fight
World-leading arborist, Ian Crossman, now retired in Port Douglas for the past 20 years, says the Rex Smeal Park fig tree facing the chop from today is “perfectly healthy” and Douglas Shire Council should make available the full details of its assessments before a single chainsaw is started.
The support for the tree has given petitioners, led by Melina Capogreco, the confidence to this morning head to Cairns to seek an injunction on the tree's removal. A meeting with a High Court judge was urgently scheduled for 6am today, Tuesday, October 21, just an hour before contractors are due to start the chainsaws.
Mr Crossman, 76, and a former Parks Director for West Aukland, New Zealand, said he is likely the most highly qualified arborist in Australasia having gained his qualifications at Merrest Wood College, Surrey in the UK, when the profession first began.
“That was 52 years ago and I have been looking at trees ever since,” he said.
“I have saved trees just like this fig around the library in Cairns and also in Palm Cove.
“When I hear talk of so-called independent arborists, the warning bells go off when I hear that.”
Mr Crossman said the fig tree would be expected to have a root structure across an area matching the tree’s canopy.
“It is pretty safe to say that it is the same size underground. If left to its own devices, if we weren’t here, that tree would occupy the whole of that park area,” he said.
“They go and build playgrounds under it and then freak out when trees fall over in the town centre.
“There’s nothing going to blow over there. Council are probably freaking out because people say I’m an expert and I’m saying it’s unsafe.
“It’s perfectly healthy. It’s a normal, average fig tree.”
Mr Crossman said Douglas Shire Council must give the community asking questions about the tree the detail of the reports which have spelled its demise.
“It’s a civic asset. We should be able to question the reports and their bonafides and their track record,’’ he said.
Petitioner Melina Capgreco, who launched a petition on Sunday that last night had more than 800 signatures to it, is planning with fellow supporters to lodge a court injunction on the removal of the tree in Cairns today.
Contractors MPDT are expected to begin work to remove the tree from 7am this morning, Tuesday, October 20, after an exclusion zone around it and the playground was established yesterday and a senior ecologist inspected the tree.
