The work began early yesterday and was expected to take several days, with contractors for the Dunedin City Council being careful to avoid dropping debris on nearby Butts Rd or the cricket ground's grandstand.
Council parks and reserves team leader Martin Thompson said one of the trees being removed - on the edge of Butts Rd - was up to 80 years old, while the others near the grandstand and embankment were aged "probably under 50".
Ten of the trees were being removed for safety reasons, having been found to be in a bad state of decay and were "starting to get to their use-by date", he said.
The remainder were being removed to make way for a new bridge, to be installed in coming weeks, providing pedestrian access over the nearby Opoho Creek from Butts Rd to the cricket ground, he said.
New plantings would be added to replace them within two years, once the redevelopment of the ground was completed.
"We don't want to remove them, but when you have got them there with decay or in a potentially hazardous condition we have to remove them."
The operation was expected to cost $18,000 and was complicated by the close proximity of the grandstand, meaning a crane was being used to lift the trees out in sections, Mr Thompson said.
"There's a lot of what we would call potential targets, if you were just to drop them. It's got to be fairly methodical and fairly careful," he said.
