FOMT NEWS UPDATE

 

"The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe, for the axe was clever and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood, he was one of them."
 

       President's Note: With the significant changes underway for Mobile's Urban Forest, this is an excellent time for you, or someone you know, who is interested in our treescape's future to step forward to properly manage this website.                                       Until then, FOMT will use this website as an additional "electronic bulletin board" to keep you informed about what is happening and, sadly, not happening at Government Plaza. Here you will see the latest tree-related news. You can also post your public comments on our Friends of Mobile Trees' Facebook page.

                                                      

 

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"No taxation without representation"

Good morning from Friends of Mobile Trees. Today begins, not ends our response to the illegal massacre of a beautiful line of oak trees on Michigan Avenue. The central issue is not whether this destruction was necessary. That’s secondary. The central issue is that it was done illegally by MANY active participants in City government working together as a team. FOMT will not relent until we have a formal written statement, not from a spokesperson, but from Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis that this illegal activity he leads will cease. Otherwise, next week, FOMT will formally request Attorney General Marshall to do his job and review and remediate the City of Mobile’s deliberate failure to respect and follow Alabama law, the Mobile Tree Act.

When State Representative Chris Pringle wrote a revision of the Mobile Tree Act in 2015, most everyone saw the wisdom of protecting our heritage trees from unnecessary destruction. Balancing the healthy desire for economic growth with our urban forest’s healthy growth, this state law requires that requests to remove trees from the public right of way must be first approved by the Tree Commissioners appointed by our City Council. The only exception is the mayor has discretion to override in cases where public safety is at risk such as damage after a storm or a dangling tree limb. Penalties for deliberately violating this law are steep including potential prison time.

This is NOT an isolated, one-off event. In coming days, we will unpack in depth EACH individual agency directly involved in this criminal enterprise. During the Stimpson Administration, oak trees on Bienville Square were taken out with no notice or discussion. Mayor Stimpson said it wouldn’t happen again. Then, later he took out more live oaks on Broad Street as part of a redesign that, ironically enough, included bike paths bikers out in the broiling semi-tropical sun. Again, Stimpson apologized. Now we have the Michigan Avenue and Mayor Cheriogotis’s spokesperson writes that they were not "aware."

We’re going to start unpacking this statement with Lagniappe’s slow-walked new story that hit very quietly at 7:30 AM Sunday Morning on-line and available only to paid subscribers. Its only by this newspaper talking with its former managing editor, that anyone connected with the Mayor would go on record. In other words, the only way to know what your Mayor did on Michigan Avenue is to subscribe to Lagniappe. What did he say about deliberately violating state law?

The Mayor’s spokesperson Dale Liesch stated “As soon as the City was made aware that the normal process was not followed, we began looking into how that happened.” Yet, when this same exact scenario played out before, there was a huge public outcry each time. Now we're told the Mayor, his aides, his attorneys, Public Work professionals, urban forestry professionals and tree commissioners ALL were not “aware” of what the law requires.

Mayor Cheriogotis’s spokesperson then writes that he wants “processes in place to trigger a more robust public outreach.” Mayor Cheriogotis, we already have a process in place: the Mobile Tree Act!” If you want a new process, lobby the legislature to change state law to allow you to cut trees anytime you want for any reason. Until then, follow state law!

This public statement that the Cheriogotis Administration didn’t know they were deliberately breaking Alabama law is outrageous and totally out of control. If it was such a great idea to take out these trees, why not follow the law before doing it.

As part of our stated mission to speak for the trees, we will have more to say in the days to come about other participants in this criminal enterprise. We heard so much lip service from candidate Cheriogotis about being "laser-focused" on fighting crime. How about practicing what you preach.

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For the FOMT Board

John Robb, President

 

Same exact scenario is playing out with Spiro that we had with Sandy: they illegally remove our beautiful trees without notice or discussion and then apologize after the fact WHEN ITS too late to do anything. It happened at Bienville Square. It happened on Broad Street and now again on Michigan Avenue. That it takes a newspaper talking to its former editor to find out the explanation for this illegal act boldly demonstrates the extent of Mayor Cheriogotis's criminal enterprise. This is not acceptable and Friends of Mobile Trees has JUST BEGUN to expose this deliberate campaign to undermine our legal system. As our founders asserted:

NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!!!

Here's the lagniappe article:

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BY Evelyn Herrera

The city of Mobile recently axed a strip of live oak trees on Michigan Avenue to make way for a new turn lane for an access road project at Brookley. Legal procedure requires a public notice and statement for tree removal in Mobile, leaving the community outraged with the sudden removal.

John Robb, president of the Friends of Mobile Trees organization, made a social media post on Wednesday discussing the removal, “Beautiful live oaks that took two human generations to mature are gone and no one responsible seems to want to tell us, the citizens who pay some of the highest city taxes on planet Earth, why they are gone.”

The removal likely occurred early in the week before Memorial Day, according to Robb, who found out on May 21.

Weeks after the removal, city of Mobile spokesman Dale Liesch stated, “The trees were removed to accommodate a turn lane for an access road project at Brookley. The access road, which is part of a tri-party agreement between the city, the Mobile Airport Authority and the Industrial Development Board, will support an economic development project.”

Initially, there were legal concerns regarding the removal, as Section 11-72-9 of Alabama Code details that no tree can be removed or damaged without first being approved by the commission. Robb claims that did not happen.

“Both the Urban Forestry and Tree Commission have very emphatically stated that they had nothing to do with this,” Robb said.

The exception to this law is if the tree is deemed a public hazard, leaving it reasonably necessary to remove in case of collapse.

“I mean, you could see that from the picture [include picture above] that there’s nothing going on there out of the ordinary, so that scenario just didn’t play out,” Robb said.

However, when asked about the concerns and lack of public announcement, Liesch clarified that the city of Mobile has “heard the concerns,” stating that, “While all fees and permits were waived because it was a city project, there is still a process in place that would have triggered a community outreach effort. In this specific case, that process was not triggered. As soon as the city was made aware that the normal process was not followed, we began looking into how that happened.”

As a result of the lack of communication, Robb was only left with speculation. Facebook commenters theorized reasons for the removal ranging from Airbus involvement to potential road damage caused by the roots.

The only response Robb claimed to have gotten in the weeks leading to Liesch’s explanation was from the Alabama Urban Forestry, who said they did not know anything about the project.

Liesch affirms that a miscommunication of this scale will not happen again, stating, “We want to let residents know before a tree removal like this takes place and have processes in place to trigger a more robust public outreach. In the future, we will ensure that those processes are properly followed.”

About a month ago, the city of Mobile published a YouTube video detailing the trimming of the iconic Crichton Leprechaun Tree. Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis and various workers of the Urban Forestry speak over video recording of the trimming.

In one scene, Mayor Cheriogotis jokes, “We thought about doing an April Fools’ [joke] saying we’re cutting it down, but, you know, pranks like that don’t always land. We are not cutting this tree down. We’re making sure it lasts for many years to come.”

Robb mentioned this on the Friends of Mobile Trees website, stating, “Mayor Cheriogotis goes to great lengths in this video to let the public know that he was trimming the tree, not cutting it down. Yet, later that week, he authorized clear-cutting the entire grove of oaks on Michigan Avenue on the center median just north of I-10 without any public announcement as to why or public discussion.”

On a positive note, there are plans within the project to plant new trees to replace the ones that were removed.

View on lagniappemobile.com

 

June 5: Mobile is apparently not the only Gulf Coast city with leadership destroying trees without legal authorization. The Biloxi Herald is running a story about TWO very similar examples in Biloxi and Long Beach:

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https://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/harrison-county/article315906002.html

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This development underscores FOMT’s main concern. If we allow Mayor Cheriogotis to destroy an entire grove of oak trees on Michigan Avenue, without legal authorization or even discussion or notice, on our public property and use our tax money to do it, what can we expect in other neighborhoods and other public policy areas like our health and safety?

FOMT has received DOZENS of emails, texts, phone calls and messages from concerned residents since we first learned about the Michigan Avenue Massacre. Yet, in all that time, we have had ONE person support Mayor Cheriogotis’s actions and inactions: not the Mayor, a spokesperson, Public Works Director, Public Services Director, Urban Forester, City Attorneys, any City Councilor or their seven appointed Tree Commissioners. The mayor’s ONE defender is Fred Kapp, Executive Director of the Alabama Urban Forestry Association in BIRMINGHAM, Alabama. Very ironically, AUFA’s mission statement on aufa.com is virtually identical to FOMT’s mission, to advocate:

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“proper selection, planting and tree care, tree protection and other tree issues in the urban setting.”

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Yet, Mr. Kapp’s concern is apparently not at all concerned about this flagrant tree destruction without legal authority. Instead, he writes that FOMT should not engage in “politics” about tree policy:

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“My concern is that most emails go after certain folks … Recently the email blasted several commissioners and advocated for the news to do investigative work, which is not where we can be.”

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Mr. Kapp, FOMT respectfully disagrees. FOMT welcomes vibrant investigative reporting about illegal tree removal, not just here in Mobile but other cities such as Biloxi and Long Beach. That your association does not is, for us, an enormous red flag without white or blue.

When I asked Mr. Kapp how alerting apparent illegal activity involving our oak trees is “politics” and not central to our respective mission for the trees, he declined to respond. Instead, he asked that we remove him from FOMT's mailing list. In fairness to him and AUFA, we cannot and will not do that since we have much more to tell you tomorrow about AUFA’s interest in the Michigan Avenue Massacre. It would be wrong to not copy him. 

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Judging by his recent pattern, our relatively new mayor is out of control. His flagrant abuse of his elected position will not go unchecked. FOMT will continue to report to you our members each day. Our great founders didn’t lose their lives 250 years ago and on Omaha Beach 82 years ago tomorrow so we can live under a dictator who acts as if he is above the law and not answerable to the people he recently swore to protect.

 

Check back tomorrow for more about the AUFA's sudden involvement in Mobile's tree crisis.

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For the FOMT Board

John Robb, President

FRIENDS OF MOBILE TREES™

john.robb102@yahoo.com

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June 4, 2026:Good morning. A glimmer of light in Mobile’s urban forest! As FOMT previously reported to you, Mobile’s Tree Commissioners halted ALL public communication in July, 2024, citing “technical issues” with their Buildmobile website page. Now, we are happy to tell you the Commissioners are coming out of the shadows. No meeting announcements, agendas or minutes yet, but, they have publicly posted brief “results” from their April 21st meeting at: 

https://www.buildmobile.org/planning/tree-commission/

As we told you in April, that’s the meeting where the Commissioners voted to approve Councilor Ben Reynolds request to give $10,000 to the Tillman’s Corner Chamber of Commerce for emergency watering of trees planted too late in the season that these same Commissioners previously said were overpriced and too expensive for them to buy.

This is also the meeting where former Urban Forester Peter Toler reported that Mayor Cheriogotis had personally trimmed the Chrichton Leprechaun tree on Le Cren Street. Mr. Toler released for the City an excellent video of the Mayor’s tree trimming just a few days before the Mayor fired Mr. Toler after eleven years providing emergency response in all kinds of crazy weather. The video is on YouTube or you can view through this link       

 https://youtu.be/8UYw5nHYwxU?si=5YnYDdSm8yjVbh0w

Very ironically, Mayor Cheriogotis goes to great lengths in this video to let the public know that he was trimming the tree, not cutting it down. Yet, later that week, he authorized clear-cutting the entire grove of oaks on Michigan Avenue on the center median just north of I-10 without any public announcement as to why or public discussion. Since there was no impending circumstance such as a storm or imminent tree failures, that action appears to break state law. The Mobile Tree Act assigns the Tree Commissioners the duty of approving routine tree removal, not the Mayor. If you or I cut down those trees, penalties would include potential prison time.

While we have received dozens of emails, texts and messages from concerned residents about this sudden destruction of about a half mile of oaks, not one of the seven City Councilors who appoint the Commissioners, the Mayor or his staff members have answered our members’ requests to explain this destruction. But, someone did emerge from left field to defend the Mayor’s actions. More tomorrow about this additional strange twist that speaks volumes about the Michigan Avenue clear cutting.

John Robb, President

For the FOMT Board

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​June 3, 2026: Hello all, just back home so catching up on the recent clear cutting of live oaks on the center median of Michigan Avenue just  north of I-10. As highlighted in CAPS, we don't see how the Mobile Tree Act allows the mayor to do this without ANY public notice or hearing and still be within the letter and spirit of this law. All the texts, emails and private Facebook messages we've received are incredibly vague second-hand comments like "I heard Airbus wanted them out." There was another vague reference to improper placement causing roots to come up through the avenue but the picture itself shows NOTHING unusual on Michigan. So how on earth was this "reasonably necessary" to take out these beautiful oaks and, even if for some reason it was, why no public notice or discussion by anybody involved in this?

 

Section 11-72-9 Application and Permission to Cut, Remove, Trim, Etc.; Emergency Exceptions

(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), no person shall cut, remove, trim, or in any way damage any tree in any street right-of-way in the Class 2 municipality or create any condition injurious to any tree without having first made a written application so to do to the commission and having obtained advance written permission from the commission. Any governmental body or utility may, by filing an application accompanied by a certificate as hereinafter provided, obtain a continuing permission to trim, cut, or remove at any time any trees in any area described in its application for such permission. The form of application shall be as established by the commission, and the commission may delegate to one or more of its members or officers the power to grant such permission in accordance with standards set by it. The commission may in its discretion hold public hearings on any application and may approve part of an application or may approve an application upon terms and conditions as the commission may establish. In considering any application before it, the commission shall base its decision on whether the public and private benefit that will result from granting the application outweighs the public and private benefit that will result from denying it. In the event the mayor of the Class 2 municipality or public utility shall certify to the commissioners that it desires to trim, cut, or remove trees and that it is or MAY BECOME REASONABLY NECESSARY to do so to prevent a public hazard or to provide efficient or economical service to the public, then such certificate shall be conclusive evidence for the approval of the application, and the commission shall approve the same, and there shall be no appeal from such approval except as provided in Section 11-72-10.

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FOMT will regularly update Facebook and this website mobiletrees.org with what we find out about this deliberate act. We believe that, left unchallenged, this activity will only encourage Mayor Cheriogotis to do this again in other neighborhoods. What then would stop him from ignoring laws in other areas of public policy such as our public health and public safety?

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 For the FOMT Board

John Robb, President

FRIENDS OF MOBILE TREES™

john.robb102@yahoo.com

mobiletrees@yahoo.com

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Greetings from Friends of Mobile Trees!

Big changes are coming soon for the Mobile Tree Commission although it would be difficult to see that from the Commissioners’ unposted agenda for yesterday’s monthly meeting. Aside from routine department reports and denial of two routine individual tree permits, nothing much happened. No trees are being planted despite FOMT’s continued offer to pay for all the trees for Phase 2 of the Airport Boulevard median project. They also held off on Councilor Ben Reynolds' request last month for another 10K for emergency watering of trees in Tillman's Corner that were planted too late in the season and were, according to the same Commissioners, too expensive for them to buy.

However, applications are now closed for Urban Forester Peter Toler’s vacant position so we will soon have his replacement named. Tree Commissioner Donavan Ballard is now doubling as the Commission's Urban Forestry rep and is the most likely choice to replace Mr. Toler. If that does happen, Mr. Ballard would likely need to resign his position on the Commission to avoid an obvious conflict of interest.

Also, elections of new board officers is set for next month so we will likely have a new Chair to replace long-time Chair Will Rooks. Treasurer Andrew Blejwas is the ranking member eligible to step up.

As for the Commissioners’ continued monthly failure since July, 2024 to post on their Buildmobile web page meeting announcements, agendas, minutes or even two-or-three-word action summaries, the Commissioners are now saying that is due to “computer” issues. They say they “may” opt to begin posting meeting announcements seven days in advance on the bulletin board across from the City side elevators at Government Plaza to, at least, technically comply with the Alabama Open Meetings Act.

As always, we’ll keep you posted on what happens or not happens for our beautiful trees.
 

For the FOMT Board

John Robb, President

FRIENDS OF MOBILE TREES™

john.robb102@yahoo.com

mobiletrees@yahoo.com

mobiletrees.org

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