The state wants to strike a balance between the beauty of the trees and the safety of drivers.

This summer the state cut down trees along the H2 freeway and it created an uproar from environmentalists.

The Likelike project won?????t cause that same controversy because environmentalists are being consulted first and they believe there is a legitimate danger. Six trees have already fallen this year on the Likelike.

???Basically this tree here is just too tall. I’m guessing it?????s about 125-feet tall and when the tree gets too tall the weight of the tree starts shifting and leaning towards the road,” said Scott Ishikawa, Department of Transportation Spokesman, as he pointed out an albizia tree that is on the list to cut down.

About 200 trees will be cut down. Another 126 will be directionally pruned.

“That is where you prune the tree a certain way where the weight of the tree falls away from the road rather than towards it,” Ishikawa said.

This summer the state coordinated a tree-cutting project on the H2 freeway, which upset some people and prompted the non-profit organization The Outdoor Circle to step in.

“We want to avoid future fiascos,” said Bob Loy, The Outdoor Circle.

To avoid being blindsided by those fiascos the state consulted the environmentalists first. Recently, state officials, the environmentalists and the arborist that inspected the trees surveyed the trees on the list to cut down or prune.

“We just want to make sure we get their input before we move ahead with any work and let the public know what we plan to do so there won’t be any outcry when they see us removing trees,” Ishikawa said.

On the Likelike project, The Outdoor Circle agrees the trees are a hazard.

“These (albizia) trees are inherently weak limbed and tend to break and if they break at the wrong time they could cause a problem,” Loy said.

The arborist that created the list of trees to cut says people won’t miss them.

“Unless you’re someone that walks this and really looks at everything you won’t even notice they’re gone,” said David Rohner.

There was another controversy as well. As reported recently at landscapearchitect.com, the last contractor, Imua Landscaping, illegally dumped the tree waste from the H2 project. The state has hired Imua Landscaping again to do the work on the Likelike, but this time they want to see invoices from all the landfills to show they properly got rid of the trees.