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            FOMT UPDATE

 

Sept. 15, 2026: Good morning from Friends of Mobile Trees! The posted agenda for tomorrow’s Mobile Tree Commission meeting includes the Commission’s request to meet with Mayor Cheriogotis about the City’s illegal destruction of a grove of oak trees on Michigan Avenue’s central median just North of I-10. Yet, there has been no public word since about policy going forward. So, tomorrow’s meeting is a golden opportunity for Mayor Cheriogotis to proactively explain to us citizens his plans for following established state law, the Mobile Tree Act, that requires the Tree Commission to first approve tree removal on public right-of-way. The Mayor’s only public comment, through a spokesperson three months ago, is that his many professionals that we pay, including Urban Forestry and City attorneys, were not “aware” that this destruction on Michigan Avenue violated state law. Yet, this destruction occurred just a few days after Mayor Cheriogotis posted a YouTube video showing him in a boom truck above the Mobile Leprechaun tree on LeCren Street. In the video, the Mayor clarified that he was just trimming the tree and not destroying it since he knew that would trigger a huge public outcry. You can watch it for yourself right here:
https://youtu.be/8UYw5nHYwxU?si=oaOLX6tNFVLggSVV
A few days later, Mayor Cheriogotis terminated, without comment or explanation, eleven year veteran Urban Forester Peter Toler, the very same person who had just produced and narrated his video. Then he illegally destroyed the oaks on Michigan Avenue. Recently, FOMT posted extensive local media coverage during those eleven years of the City’s previous violations of this state law that carries penalties including jail time for repeated offenses. Here’s a summary with links for each:
1)Illegal killing of oak trees on Broad Street near Government in 2022:
https://www.lagniappemobile.com/news/local/neighborhood-group-upset-over-the-
2) the City fining in 2021 an Africatown resident $722 for cutting ONE tree limb hanging over his own home!
https://mynbc15.com/news/local/mobile-fines-homeowner-hundreds-for-cutting-tree-that-hangs-over-his-home
3) In 2016, Mayor Cheriogotis’s predecessor Mayor Stimpson forced his chief of staff to resign after the illegal removal of a fifty-foot cedar tree from Public Safety Park to repurpose as a Christmas tree at a Ladd Stadium rally.
https://www.al.com/news/mobile/2016/12/colby_cooper_of_mobile_mayor_s.html
In 2015 the Tree Commission Chairman resigned in protest when the City illegally removed seventeen live oaks from public streets in downtown Mobile
https://mynbc15.com/news/local/mayor-wants-17-live-oak-trees-removed-from-downtown-mobile
In 2015, Mayor Stimpson illegally removed nine oak trees from Bienville Square
https://www.al.com/news/mobile/2015/07/5_things_we_know_a_week_later.html
To emphasize our main point, Mayor Cheriogotis illegally destroyed the Michigan Avenue oaks AFTER ALL these previous violations of established state law as extensively covered by multiple media outlets while Mr. Cheriogotis was serving as a presiding Mobile District Judge! That’s why it would be very good for the Mayor to carve out a few minutes from his busy schedule, attend tomorrow’s meeting at 4:30 PM and explain his plans for following state law going forward. That way we can all go back to planting the right trees in the right places instead of illegally killing them without common sense oversight. FOMT encourages you our fellow citizens to attend too so we can get back to working together.

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June 22: Good morning from Friends of Mobile Trees. Now that we have our City leaders attention and I'm leaving on a long-planned overseas trip, FOMT is wrapping up, for now at least, our daily posts about the Cheriogotis Administration’s deliberate and illegal removal of a grove of thriving oak trees on Michigan Avenue just north of   I-10. Although a spokesperson claimed City officials were not “aware” this was a crime, it continued a criminal pattern since the Covid era began during the Stimpson Administration including several high-profile sites such as Broad at Government and Bienville Square as widely reported by local TV and Lagniappe.

Although much has been written and said, only one human being has defended Mayor Cheriogotis’s actions and inactions: not himself, a staffer, City Councilor, urban forestry pro, tree commissioner, news reporter or even one of the many attorney’s we pay to ensure the Mayor complies with the law. The Mayor’s only defender was in Birmingham: Fred Kapp, Director of the Alabama Urban Forestry Association. With that title, you’d expect Mr. Kapp to be, like us Mobilians, outraged by this repeated illegal destruction of our oaks. Instead, he pushed back at us for going public about our own public business here in Mobile:

“Recently the emails blasted several Commissioners and advocated for the news to do investigative work, which is not where we can be.” Mr. Kapp called Mayor Cheriogotis “friendly and respectful” and advised FOMT to “let it go (Fred Kapp: May 29).”

Fortunately, we didn’t. Significant progress has been made without his help. So why would the Alabama Urban Forestry Association Director defend this illegal activity when his website states his mission to be promoting proper “planting and tree care, tree protection and other tree issues in the urban setting?”

We asked AUFA’s Board Treasurer Chris Francis, owner of Chris Francis Treecare, who retains a seven-figure Mobile taxpayer-funded contract with the City of Mobile to handle tree projects like Michigan Avenue. He wrote back that he knew “absolutely nothing” about Mayor Cheriogotis’s illegal activity and said we should drop Mr. Kapp from our mailing list. When we responded that we could not do that since a serious crime had been committed that Mr. Kapp was now covering up, Mr. Francis threatened to sue FOMT:

“The man asked for you to remove him from your email list.  Just make it happen.  Don't complicate it.  Upon request, you must comply or face penalties of up to $51,744 per non-compliant email.  That's a lot of trees that could be planted for the fines.  I don't think your membership would think too kindly of that.  No need to reply (Chris Francis, June 3).”

FOMT clearly saw Mr. Francis’s bold threat for what it is: a red flag and reconfirmed the need for daily posts about the Michigan Avenue Massacre to do what any good citizens should do when a serious crime is committed: contact the authorities, not cover it up. Ironically enough, when we received Mr. Francis's threat, I was celebrating my college graduation's 50th anniversary with some of the top tort lawyers in America. We had a good laugh and toasted to Mr. Francis confident that FOMT can defend against anything Mr. Francis has planned.

FOMT believes that these daily posts were integral towards ending this illegal activity. The Tree Commissioners have resumed posting on their Build Mobile site meeting notices and agendas. Tuesday, they pledged to resume posting meeting minutes too so we’ll know what they’re doing and not doing going forward. Tuesday, Quin Hillyer joined the Commission and brings the common sense and integrity that has been sorely lacking since Covid. Mr. Hillyer correctly called the illegal Michigan Avenue destruction exactly what it is: “an atrocity.” The six attending Commissioners all voted to ask the Mayor for a sit-down to coordinate complying with the Mobile Tree Act. Progress, yes, but it's still just talk.

Recognizing the many twists and turns in this story makes it hard to follow, tomorrow we will post to mobiletrees.org and our Facebook page a timeline just as we did with our Airport Boulevard replanting. Then, we will wait to give Mayor Cheriogotis ample time to craft a response as to his future plans for our treescape. Actually, just one short sentence in his own words that he pledges to follow the law going forward would end this matter so we can go back to planting trees. Without that assurance by August 1, we will then refer this to Attorney General Steve Marshall for remediation. Simply put, FOMT will not allow this illegal activity that has gone on since the Covid era continue without pursuing every legal and peaceful alternative.

As for Mr. Francis at the AUFA, go right ahead with your threat to sue us for speaking up about this illegal crime pattern. We also advise that you keep the acronym AUFA yet change your name to the Alabama Urban ForestERS Association since you are clearly way more focused on protecting your own interests than in protecting our urban forest.

For the FOMT Board

John Robb, President

FRIENDS OF MOBILE TREES™

john.robb102@yahoo.com

mobiletrees@yahoo.com

mobiletrees.org