As chainsaws wailed on Dunedin's University of Otago campus yesterday, student Carol Taurua-McCready held a mature tree and wept.
''A tree is a living thing,'' Ms Taurua-McCready said.
She said several willow trees had been felled on campus for the Leith Stream flood protection scheme and more trees were being cut down for a central campus landscaping project.
Ms Taurua-McCready hugged a tree outside the St David Lecture Theatre yesterday, the bright paint on the tree signalling it would soon be gone.
''Leave the bloody trees alone. I'm thoroughly disgusted - these trees are not endangering anybody or anything,'' Ms Taurua-McCready said.
University property services division director Barry MacKay said about 50 trees, including silver birch, ash, cherry, beech, cedar, oak and alder, would be removed to make way for the landscaping and drainage work.
Trees being removed were generally nearing the end of their lives, or were not positioned where they could be included in the new landscape layout, he said.
On campus now, there were 1764 individual trees, some in groups, he said.
However, when the project was complete, there would be ''slightly more'' trees on campus.
Plants to be relocated on campus included four or five smaller beech and cherry trees, three memorial trees and a number of shrubs.
In addition to the replacement and repositioned trees, more than 8000 plants would be included in the project.
The $7.8million project began this month to transform the university's Dunedin campus.
The plan would develop the campus grounds between the northern end of the Richardson Building and the intersection of Castle and Dundas Sts and from the Staff Club east along Union St across the Union St bridge to the Archway Lecture Theatres.
