An award-winning Landcare volunteer has described Lake Macquarie City Council's decision to strip one of the Hunter's most picturesque beaches of the majority of its vegetation as "tree vandalism".
Last week the council removed a host of native vegetation, including mature banksias, tuckeroos, figs and tea trees as part of its Redhead Dune Management Plan.
The Redhead Dune Management Plan began on June 22 and is part of the council's long-term vision to stabilise sand on its most popular beach.
In recent years parts of the Redhead Beach car park and public showers have been inundated by tonnes of shifting sand.
The continuing works propose to reshape the sand dune, install protective fencing and plant native vegetation to remediate the site.
The council originally sought to conserve the banksias that separated the sand dune from the car park; however, a spokesperson said it was not possible.
"During construction, contractors carefully worked around existing vegetation and removed sand from around several mature native trees in an effort to retain them," the spokesperson said.
"However, once surrounding sand levels were adjusted to achieve the required dune profile, several mature banksias became exposed to increased wind and weather conditions, resulting in structural instability.
"Unfortunately, these trees could not be safely retained and required removal."
Redhead's Brian Hilton, who received the Gerald Carnie Memorial Award at the NSW Landcare Awards in 2022 for more than four decades of service, said the trees were planted by Landcare volunteers 20 years ago and nurtured.
"There's no sound reason put forward that the trees needed to be removed in my view," Mr Hilton said.
"I would consider it basically tree vandalism and not only that, it's the worst case of tree vandalism in the history of Redhead.
"It's really disappointing to see 20 years of volunteer work destroyed in one day."
Mr Hilton also said the public was not informed that the council was deviating from the original plan and removing the trees.
Whitebridge resident Lynden Jacobi was also shocked to see council crews removing the trees.
"I was absolutely devastated to realise that they've taken out a whole swath of trees that were planted by Landcare and cared for constantly for years until they got established," Ms Jacobi said.
"Because of some modelling they've had done and because they were slightly above the ground height of the ideal they've taken them all out.
"It's just devastating. It was this beautiful forest that stopped the sand encroaching onto the car park and now they're planning to replace it with some stabilisation mat and pigface."
The council said once the earthworks are complete, the reshaped dune will be stabilised with jute matting, hay bales and other natural materials.
The site will also be revegetated with native dune species like pigface, spinifex and coastal fan flower (Scaevola).
Once the native dune species are established, the council will plant mid-storey and canopy species such as banksias, wattles and tuckeroos.
"Works have been designed to deliver long-term environmental benefits by restoring the overall function and resilience of the dune system," the spokesperson said.
"Without intervention, the ongoing movement of the dune was expected to continue impacting both vegetation and public infrastructure over time."
Timber and leaf matter from the dead banksias will also be repurposed in the rehabilitated dune to help trap windblown sand, reduce erosion, improve habitat values and support the establishment of native vegetation.
