An international parks expert, and former director of parks in Whangarei, has expressed sadness over the felling of heritage trees at Mander Park.
Rob Small, world president of the International Federation of Parks, said the felling of the 11 trees was a sad moment for his former city.
"As a former Director of Parks in Whangarei in the'70s and'80s, I knew these wonderful trees well and admired their grandeur," Mr Small told the Northern Advocate.
He said the trees could have been successfully relocated rather than cut down, as had been done in other places.
"In particular, the large liriodendrons [tulip trees] and London planes will withstand pruning and moving very successfully, even when fully mature. I can only conclude that the architects of this wanton destruction have either no vision or lack the ability or the wit to conceive of such an effort."
In many countries around the world, the felling of mature trees would require the planting of advanced grown trees to offset the loss, he said.
"Quite often the requirement is to replant with four or five times as many trees in several sites to compensate for the loss of mature trees," Mr Small said.
"Lets see if the NZTA can at least recognise this destruction as deserving some mitigation and put something back into the landscape of Whangarei that they needlessly removed."
NZTA's regional state highways manager for Auckland and Northland Tommy Parker said the agency did investigate transplanting some of the trees but were advised by arborists that the trees' chances of survival were low. The agency plans to plant 11 trees of at least 6m in Mander Park as replacements.
Two tulip trees, five plane trees and four English oak will be planted this month.
"Other improvements to the park to offset the removal of the mature trees, which include upgrades to the playground and stream, more footpaths and improved parking in Wilson Avenue, are planned for the winter," he said.
Meanwhile, the trunks have been removed from Mander Park and taken to a storage facility.
"As part of the cultural assessment undertaken in the RMA process, iwi were consulted and a dawn blessing was carried out at the park early last year prior to the trees being removed. The NZTA agreed to gift large trunks to iwi who have earmarked particular sections of trees they would like to carve."