A Flatts resident has claimed that the person responsible for chopping down Casuarinas on Abbott's Cliff Park and Cockroach Island has created a marine hazard which is also unsightly.

While he said he understood that Casuarinas were a nuisance which break up shorelines, he charged that the culprit should have ensured the trees were disposed of properly. The trees fell into the water after they were cut down and were not removed.

"It's unsightly. On Cockroach Island (Cockroach Rock) it looks like a bomb hit. If they've got to cut them down they should do it the proper way," the complainant said.

"What if everyone threw everything overboard?"

David Wingate, a former Government conservation Officer, said that the trees were cut down on July 4 under his direction by summer interns from the Bermuda Aquarium bio-diversity project but time was limited when the exercise, which was approved by Government, began.

But he said that there were full intentions to go back and complete the last third of the work by tidying up the area as much as possible. He said it was difficult to pull trees out of the water to cut them up but smaller trees could be pulled up, cut and stacked on the shoreline.

He admitted that the area is not attractive but said he did not believe the trees would be hazardous to marine navigators as boaters would probably first strike a reef or rock should they come that far into shore; he claimed that the trees have fallen directly against the shoreline.

And he noted that Casuarinas sink and would become attachment sites for marine life.

Mr. Wingate also stressed that Cockroach Rock is a private-owned area but said he had been unaware of its status when he began the project of culling the trees. Negotiations with the owner are underway. Abbott's Cliff Park is Government owned.

While Casuarinas, which are not endemic to Bermuda, do not tend to self seed on land, along the coast line they do self seed on rocks and grow tall and straight creating a tall tree scape. During bad weather they can also pull down major chunks of cliff changing the character of the shoreline.

Mr. Wingate said importance had been placed on culling out the trees because the cliff portion of Abbott's Cliff Park is a designated Nature Reserve.