Friends of Mobile Trees

06/09/2026

Getting with the program.

The psychological motivations behind this popular phenomenon include mating, community, online connections, wellness and nature

06/08/2026

Good morning from Friends of Mobile Trees. Today begins, not ends our response to the illegal massacre of a beautiful line of oak trees on Michigan Avenue. The central issue is not whether this destruction was necessary. That’s secondary. The central issue is that it was done illegally by MANY active participants in City government working together as a team. FOMT will not relent until we have a formal written statement, not from a spokesperson, but from Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis that this illegal activity he leads will cease. Otherwise, next week, FOMT will formally request Attorney General Marshall to do his job and review and remediate the City of Mobile’s deliberate failure to respect and follow Alabama law, the Mobile Tree Act.

When State Representative Chris Pringle wrote a revision of the Mobile Tree Act in 2015, most everyone saw the wisdom of protecting our heritage trees from unnecessary destruction. Balancing the healthy desire for economic growth with our urban forest’s healthy growth, this state law requires that requests to remove trees from the public right of way must be first approved by the Tree Commissioners appointed by our City Council. The only exception is the mayor has discretion to override in cases where public safety is at risk such as damage after a storm or a dangling tree limb. Penalties for deliberately violating this law are steep including potential prison time.

This is NOT an isolated, one-off event. In coming days, we will unpack in depth EACH individual agency directly involved in this criminal enterprise. During the Stimpson Administration, oak trees on Bienville Square were taken out with no notice or discussion. Mayor Stimpson said it wouldn’t happen again. Then, later he took out more live oaks on Broad Street as part of a redesign that, ironically enough, included bike paths bikers out in the broiling semi-tropical sun. Again, Stimpson apologized. Now we have the Michigan Avenue and Mayor Cheriogotis’s spokesperson writes that they were not "aware."

We’re going to start unpacking this statement with Lagniappe’s slow-walked new story that hit very quietly at 7:30 AM Sunday Morning on-line and available only to paid subscribers. Its only by this newspaper talking with its former managing editor, that anyone connected with the Mayor would go on record. In other words, the only way to know what your Mayor did on Michigan Avenue is to subscribe to Lagniappe. What did he say about deliberately violating state law?

The Mayor’s spokesperson Dale Liesch stated “As soon as the City was made aware that the normal process was not followed, we began looking into how that happened.” Yet, when this same exact scenario played out before, there was a huge public outcry each time. Now we're told the Mayor, his aides, his attorneys, Public Work professionals, urban forestry professionals and tree commissioners ALL were not “aware” of what the law requires.

Mayor Cheriogotis’s spokesperson then writes that he wants “processes in place to trigger a more robust public outreach.” Mayor Cheriogotis, we already have a process in place: the Mobile Tree Act!” If you want a new process, lobby the legislature to change state law to allow you to cut trees anytime you want for any reason. Until then, follow state law!

This public statement that the Cheriogotis Administration didn’t know they were deliberately breaking Alabama law is outrageous and totally out of control. If it was such a great idea to take out these trees, why not follow the law before doing it.

As part of our stated mission to speak for the trees, we will have more to say in the days to come about other participants in this criminal enterprise. We heard so much lip service from candidate Cheriogotis about being "laser-focused" on fighting crime. How about practicing what you preach.

JOHN
For the FOMT Board

John Robb, President

06/07/2026

Good afternoon, Friends of Mobile Trees is taking the unusual but necessary step of commenting on the Michigan Avenue Massacre on a Sunday to respond to today’s article streaming on Lagniappe’s website:

https://www.lagniappemobile.com/news/city-axes-strip-of-live-oaks/article_223459b7-6a09-460f-9acd-71e87640936e.html

Same exact scenario is playing out with Mayor Cheriogotis that we had with Mayor Stimpson: they illegally remove our beautiful trees without notice or discussion and then apologize after the fact WHEN ITS TOO LATE to do it a different way. It happened at Bienville Square. It happened on Broad Street and now again on Michigan Avenue. That it takes a newspaper talking to its former editor to find out the explanation for this illegal act boldly demonstrates the extent of Mayor Cheriogotis's criminal enterprise. This is not acceptable and Friends of Mobile Trees has JUST BEGUN to expose this deliberate campaign to undermine our legal system and will call for appropriate legal remediation. As our founders asserted:
NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!!!

For the FOMT Board
John Robb, President
FRIENDS OF MOBILE TREES™
[email protected]
[email protected]
mobiletrees.org

06/05/2026

"No taxation without representation"
FOMT Update
June 5: Mobile is apparently not the only Gulf Coast city with leadership destroying trees without legal authorization. The Biloxi Herald is running a story about TWO very similar examples in Biloxi and Long Beach:
https://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/harrison-county/article315906002.html
This development underscores FOMT’s main concern. If we allow Mayor Cheriogotis to destroy an entire grove of oak trees on Michigan Avenue, without legal authorization or even discussion or notice, on our public property and use our tax money to do it, what can we expect in other neighborhoods and other public policy areas like our health and safety?
FOMT has received DOZENS of emails, texts, phone calls and messages since we first learned about the Michigan Avenue Massacre. Yet, in all that time, we have had ONE person support Mayor Cheriogotis’s actions and inactions: not the Mayor, a spokesperson, Public Works Director, Public Services Director, Urban Forester, City Attorneys, any City Councilor or their seven appointed Tree Commissioners. The mayor’s ONE defender is Fred Kapp, Executive Director of the Alabama Urban Forestry Association in BIRMINGHAM, Alabama. Very ironically, AUFA’s mission statement on aufa.com is virtually identical to FOMT’s mission, to advocate:
“proper selection, planting and tree care, tree protection and other tree issues in the urban setting.”
Yet, Mr. Kapp’s concern is not at all about this flagrant tree destruction without legal authority. Instead, he writes that FOMT should not engage in “politics” about tree policy:
“My concern is that most emails go after certain folks … Recently the email blasted several commissioners and advocated for the news to do investigative work, which is not where we can be.”
Mr. Kapp: FOMT respectfully disagrees. FOMT welcomes vibrant investigative reporting about illegal tree removal, not just here in Mobile but other cities such as Biloxi and Long Beach. That your association does not is, for us, an enormous red flag with no white or blue.
When I asked Mr. Kapp how alerting apparent illegal activity involving our oak trees is “politics” and not central to our respective mission for the trees, he declined to respond. Instead, he asked that we remove him from FOMT's mailing list. In fairness to him and AUFA, we cannot and will not do that since we have much more to tell you tomorrow about AUFA’s interest in the Michigan Avenue Massacre. It would be wrong to not copy him.
Judging by his recent pattern, our relatively new mayor is out of control. His flagrant abuse of his elected position will not go unchecked. FOMT will continue to report to you our members each day. Our great founders didn’t lose their lives 250 years ago and on Omaha Beach 82 years ago tomorrow so we can live under a dictator who acts as if he is above the law and not answerable to the people he recently swore to protect.

Check back tomorrow for more about the AUFA's sudden involvement in Mobile's tree discussions.
For the FOMT Board
John Robb, President
FRIENDS OF MOBILE TREES™
[email protected]

06/04/2026

Good morning. A glimmer of light in Mobile’s urban forest! As FOMT has previously reported to you, Mobile’s Tree Commissioners halted ALL public communication in July, 2024, citing “technical issues” with their Buildmobile website page. Now, we are happy to tell you the Commissioners are coming out of the shadows. No meeting announcements, agendas or minutes yet. But, they have publicly posted brief “results” from their April 21st meeting at:
https://www.buildmobile.org/planning/tree-commission/

As we told you in April, that’s the meeting where the Commissioners voted to approve Councilor Ben Reynolds request to give $10,000 to the Tillman’s Corner Chamber of Commerce for emergency watering of trees planted too late in the season that these same Commissioners previously said were overpriced and too expensive for them to buy.

This is also the meeting where former Urban Forester Peter Toler reported that Mayor Cheriogotis had personally trimmed the Chrichton Leprechaun tree on Le Cren Street. Mr. Toler released for the City an excellent video of the Mayor’s tree trimming just a few days before the Mayor fired Mr. Toler after eleven years providing emergency response in all kinds of crazy weather. The video is on YouTube or you can view through this link

https://youtu.be/8UYw5nHYwxU?si=5YnYDdSm8yjVbh0w

Very ironically, Mayor Cheriogotis goes to great lengths in this video to let the public know that he was trimming the tree, not cutting it down. Yet, later that week, he authorized clear-cutting the entire grove of oaks on Michigan Avenue on the center median just north of I-10 without any public announcement as to why or public discussion. Since there was no impending circumstance such as a storm or imminent tree failures, that action appears to break state law. The Mobile Tree Act assigns the Tree Commissioners the duty of approving routine tree removal, not the Mayor. If you or I cut down those trees, penalties would include potential prison time.

While we have received dozens of emails, texts and messages from concerned residents about this sudden destruction of about a half mile of oaks, not one of the seven City Councilors who appoint the Commissioners, the Mayor or his staff members have answered our members’ requests to explain this destruction. But, someone did emerge from left field to defend the Mayor’s actions. More tomorrow about this additional strange twist that speaks volumes about the Michigan Avenue clear cutting.

John Robb, President
For the FOMT Board

Happy Arbor Day! Earlier this month, I spent the afternoon with our...

06/03/2026

"The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe, for the axe was clever and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood, he was one of them." An old Turkish proverb

Hello all, just back home so catching up on the recent clear cutting of live oaks on the center median of Michigan Avenue just north of I-10 (picture attached). As highlighted below, we don't see how the Mobile Tree Act allows the mayor to do this without ANY public notice or hearing and still be within the letter and spirit of this law. All the texts, emails and private Facebook messages we've received are incredibly vague second-hand comments like "I heard Airbus wanted them out." There was another vague reference to improper placement causing roots to come up through the avenue but the picture itself shows nothing unusual on Michigan. So how on earth was this "reasonably necessary" to take out these beautiful oaks and, even if for some reason it was, why no public notice or discussion by anybody involved in this?


Section 11-72-9 Application and Permission to Cut, Remove, Trim, Etc.; Emergency Exceptions

(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), no person shall cut, remove, trim, or in any way damage any tree in any street right-of-way in the Class 2 municipality or create any condition injurious to any tree without having first made a written application so to do to the commission and having obtained advance written permission from the commission. Any governmental body or utility may, by filing an application accompanied by a certificate as hereinafter provided, obtain a continuing permission to trim, cut, or remove at any time any trees in any area described in its application for such permission. The form of application shall be as established by the commission, and the commission may delegate to one or more of its members or officers the power to grant such permission in accordance with standards set by it. The commission may in its discretion hold public hearings on any application and may approve part of an application or may approve an application upon terms and conditions as the commission may establish. In considering any application before it, the commission shall base its decision on whether the public and private benefit that will result from granting the application outweighs the public and private benefit that will result from denying it. In the event the mayor of the Class 2 municipality or public utility shall certify to the commissioners that it desires to trim, cut, or remove trees and that it is or may become reasonably necessary to do so to prevent a public hazard or to provide efficient or economical service to the public, then such certificate shall be conclusive evidence for the approval of the application, and the commission shall approve the same, and there shall be no appeal from such approval except as provided in Section 11-72-10.

FOMT will regularly update Facebook and our website mobiletrees.org with what we find out about this deliberate act. We believe that, left unchallenged, this activity will only encourage Mayor Cheriogotis to do this again in other neighborhoods. What then would stop him from ignoring laws in other areas of public policy such as our public health and public safety?

For the FOMT Board

John Robb, President

FRIENDS OF MOBILE TREES™

[email protected]

[email protected]

06/01/2026

Friends of Mobile Trees Vice President Rick Rivers led this great project when he was President of Bellsouth Pioneers. Its a beautiful example of what Mobile could do going forward with coordinated urban forestry planning.

One of the hidden gems at USS ALABAMA Battleship Memorial Park can only truly be appreciated from the air.

🌳 Tucked within the park is a special planting of oak trees arranged in the shape of the state of Alabama.

💧 Winding between the trees are blue sidewalks, representing the major rivers that flow through our beautiful state.

🫡 Dedicated to the park in 2004 by the BellSouth Pioneers, each oak was planted with soil from all 67 Alabama counties.

Together, they stand as a living tribute to honor Alabama’s past, present, and future veterans.

A powerful reminder that even the trees at Battleship Memorial Park help tell Alabama’s story.

05/20/2026

Greetings from Friends of Mobile Trees!
Big changes are coming soon for the Mobile Tree Commission although it would be difficult to see that from the Commissioners’ unposted agenda for yesterday’s monthly meeting. Aside from routine department reports and denial of two routine individual tree permits, nothing much happened. No trees are being planted despite FOMT’s continued offer to pay for all the trees for Phase 2 of the Airport Boulevard median project. They also held off on Councilor Ben Reynolds' request last month for an another 10K for emergency watering of trees in Tillman's Corner that were planted too late in the season and were, according to the same Commissioners, too expensive for them to buy.
However, applications are now closed for Urban Forester Peter Toler’s vacant position so we will soon have his replacement named. Tree Commissioner Donavan Ballard is now doubling as the Commission's Urban Forestry rep and is the most likely choice to replace Mr. Toler. If that does happen, Mr. Ballard would likely need to resign his position on the Commission to avoid an obvious conflict of interest.

Also, elections of new board officers is set for next month so we will likely have a new Chair to replace long-time Chair Will Rooks. Treasurer Andrew Blejwas is the ranking member eligible to step up.

As for the Commissioners’ continued monthly failure since July, 2024 to post on their BuildMobile web page meeting announcements, agendas, minutes or even two- or-three-word action summaries, the Commissioners are now saying that is due to “computer” issues. They say they “may” opt to begin posting meeting announcements seven days in advance on the bulletin board across from the City side elevators at Government Plaza to, at least, technically comply with the Alabama Open Meetings Act.

As always, we’ll keep you posted on what happens or not happens for our beautiful trees.

For the FOMT Board

John Robb, President

FRIENDS OF MOBILE TREES™

[email protected]

[email protected]

251-605-9710 voice or text

mobiletrees.org

05/18/2026

Good afternoon from Friends of Mobile Trees. Since the Mobile Tree Commissioners are continuing their longtime policy of not publicly posting meeting announcements, FOMT will perform that vital function for them. I am told The Tree Commission will hold its regular monthly meeting tomorrow Tuesday May 19th at 4:30 PM in the General Meeting Room, First floor, Government Plaza. Per usual, no agenda is posted either. You are encouraged to attend as FOMT will attend. We will also keep you posted on what does and does not happen for our beautiful trees.
For the FOMT Board
John Robb, President

FRIENDS OF MOBILE TREES™

[email protected]

[email protected]

251-605-9710 voice or text

mobiletrees.org

05/07/2026

Note: this is a very long post because there is much you should know about what's happening and NOT happening with our trees:
+++++
Good morning from Friends of Mobile Trees. A City spokesperson confirmed by phone what FOMT independently confirmed previously that Urban Forester Peter Toler is no longer employed by the City and there’s no public notice about who will fill that key position. Last week, the City released a YouTube video with Mayor Cheriogotis in a boom truck with a hand saw pruning the Crichton Leprechaun tree on Le Cren Street.
https://youtu.be/8UYw5nHYwxU?si=tfuANVu4vKZaJvm1
The video was narrated by Mr. Toler who was identified with a caption as DEPUTY Urban Forester. Now the City has posted an opening for that Deputy position (Job 42289-0426) with a closing date of May 13th. But, there’s no public notice about the HEAD Urban Forester position.
It is FOMT's stated position that Mr. Toler did an absolutely awesome job responding to tree emergencies in all kinds of weather for a full decade including many tropical storms and hurricanes. We wish him the very best for the future. But, it was never his job to do the Tree Commissioners' jobs which is to PLAN our world class urban forest. That will equally be true for his successor since its in the City code. Its just that simple.
Within the context of this being a personnel matter subject to strict procedures, perhaps our mayor can enlighten us as to what is actually happening at Urban Forestry aside from spending a high-profile afternoon in a boom truck trimming a famous pecan tree on Le Cren Street. Eugene Walter aptly nicknamed Mobile "Sweet Lunacy's Seat" for good reason. In other words Mr. Mayor, do YOUR job, the one we elected you to do.
Since silence can definitely be construed as complicity with what's happening, we cannot leave the Mayor's, the Tree Commissioners' and the Councilors' recent bizarre actions and inactions unaddressed. Just as a tree cannot grow without sunlight, we cannot grow trees without light shed on this activity and inactivity. We are not discussing personalities. This is about one of our greatest assets: our trees. FOMT remains open to dialogue with the City and various stakeholders about recent events and a better path forward since the old adage remains true: “when you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
Frankly, when we addressed the City Councilors April 22nd to ask them to review their appointed Tree Commissioners’ vote to spend $10 K for emergency watering of trees in Tillman’s Corner that the Commissioners already deemed too expensive to buy, we didn’t expect action. As the attached timeline demonstrates, inaction followed by dysfunction is the norm. Our goal was/is to draw the taxpayers’ attention to how our money is misspent since our local news reporters aren’t covering it and the Tree Commissioners don’t release any public information about what they do or don’t do. Simply put, the Tree Commissioners failure to plan is NOT the exception, it’s the dysfunctional norm:
1) Airport Blvd: After three years of foot dragging (see the attached timeline), the Tree Commission accepted FOMT’s donation to pay for the 22 savannah hollies that now line the medians from I-65 to Azalea/McGregor Roads. Then, they ignored, without explanation, our offer to finish Phase 2 from Providence Drive to Schillinger Road even though the money is there to do it.
2) Zeigler Boulevard: the City spent five years and 30 million dollars widening this road, yet failed to dig around the roadway’s beautiful trees. Instead, with, apparently, no supervision, the construction crew cut the tree roots with concrete saws in a straight line insuring that these healthy trees will fail way before their time. Although this butchery violated basic urban forestry guidelines, there was nothing illegal about it so this failure to plan slips by.
3) Japanese Gardens: Extensive upgrading includes a 3/4 mile paved trail as part of the Three Mile Creek Greenway. It was beautifully done. Then, after the ribbon-cutting, the City decided to rip it all up to install light polls and security cameras. Of course, its just common sense to secure a ¾ mile urban trail into the deep woods, but the City waited until AFTER the project was finished to rip it back up to do it!
4) International Airport: The City is spending 362 million dollars on the new airport yet is delaying its opening to finish the roads leading to it. While efficient traffic circles are routinely and quickly installed all over the planet, Mobile struggles again.
5) McGregor Avenue: is now part of folk lore: 25 million and 3 years to widen 3/4 of a mile, creating major traffic gridlock during the unexplained delays when weeks went by without any work.
6) Broad Street: 25 million dollars and four years for a project that installed bike lanes and then removed, without any public discussion, the live oaks that would have provided sorely needed shade for those bike lanes.
7) Brookley By The Bay: The City and State spent 42 million dollars to buy the land for this long-discussed park. Then they discovered the land is filled with toxic industrial chemicals that must first be removed. The City is also now struggling to find the money to actually build the park.
So, FOMT is not at all surprised that the City Council is silent about four of the seven Tree Commissioners’ vote to spend 10K to provide emergency watering for trees they previously said were too expensive for them to buy. Also, we at FOMT won’t lose any sleep if the Tree Commission votes to spend ANOTHER 10K for emergency watering next month. But, we definitely will keep you posted when or if it happens. Also, our offer still stands to pay for the trees to finish Phase 2 of the Airport Blvd. replanting.
Of course, when we find out who the new Urban Forester is, FOMT will post that too and wish him the best of luck here in Sweet Lunacy’s Seat.
For the FOMT Board
John Robb, President
FRIENDS OF MOBILE TREES™
[email protected]
[email protected]
251-605-9710 voice or text
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