However, a family member, who asked not to be identified, said it was tragic it had taken the loss of a life for the Queenstown Lakes District Council to investigate the trees, and to contemplate investigating others.
Russell Albert Liggett (57), of Queenstown, was metres away from his own driveway when his Toyota Hilux was crushed by a 20m poplar tree on Lower Shotover Rd last Monday. The tree fell during high winds.
After the death, the council commissioned an independent arborist's report from Rob Slater, of Asplundh, to determine the health and safety of the avenue of about 66 trees growing on council road reserve.
Mr Slater's report found all of the trees - including the one that killed Mr Liggett - were between 80 and 120 years old, most had poor overall health and the avenue posed a "serious threat to both pedestrians and the road below them".
The tree that killed Mr Liggett had a hollow lower trunk and "prolific" dry rot in the lower part of the tree.
Mr Slater's recommendation is to remove all of the poplars, which the council will be asked to ratify at its full meeting next week, at a cost of between $50,000 and $80,000. That money would come from the roading budget.
The member of the Liggett family said the poplars - and many others in the district - needed "urgent attention".
"It's cost the unnecessary loss of life... as a result of potential negligence from [the council's] not checking the health of these trees."
The trees are not protected by the QLDC partially operative district plan and are on the legal road reserve.
Like many others around the district, they were not planted by the council but by a previous landowner to provide shelter or screening.
QLDC parks manager Gordon Bailey will present the report to the council, which will seek to have the poplars on Lower Shotover Rd removed "forthwith".
The council will also seek to authorise the chief executive to commit budget "without further resolution of council" to the removal of trees on rural road reserves identified by the parks manager as being hazardous.
The report also recommended the community be encouraged to report trees next to rural roads they believed to be dangerous and that the council roading manager, parks manager and policy staff prepare an issues and options paper for future management of trees on and next to roads in time for the 2010-11 annual plan.
Mr Bailey said the job of cataloguing and managing the "thousands" of trees which lined roads throughout the district would be "enormous", but it required further consideration.
"The tragedy highlights the wider issues regarding roadside trees, although the council should be mindful that this was a freak accident attributed to strong [equinoctial] wind, to which any tree either in good or poor health can succumb.
"The task of creating and monitoring a schedule of all road reserve trees is a major undertaking and would come with significant cost to the community," he said.
