A LEADING arborist has cut down Cairns Regional Council for failing to take care of historic trees housing the city centre’s bat colony.
The report comes as a majority of respondents in The Cairns Post’s State of the Far North survey believe the flying foxes should be left alone.
Horticulturalist and botanist Dr Gregory Moore from the University of Melbourne has weighed into the fight to preserve heritage-listed trees at the Cairns Library that play host to spectacled flying foxes.
He believes the council has a case to answer for in its excessive pruning of the Moreton Bay figs, which should have been treated with more care in such a public place.
The council was accused by conservationists of breaking state laws last year in its attempts to evict bats from roosting in the trees.
Dr Moore, who has contributed to the development of Australian Standards in pruning and amenity tree evaluation, said the trees had been “poorly pruned”.
“As a consequence, their amenity role has been under-appreciated,’’ he said.
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