Farmer and businesswoman Cindy Liggett was asked by the Otago Daily Times for her comments on an arborist's finding yesterday only three of the 67 poplar trees along Lower Shotover Rd are "sound".
The other 64 were decayed and "compromised in stability" and should be removed, the arborist said.
Mrs Ligget said the council should remove dangerous trees immediately for the safety of the community.
The finding was the same as the one council staff gave to councillors at a council meeting in Wanaka on September 29.
Mrs Liggett was told by parks manager Gordon Bailey of the recommendation by consultant arborist Frank Buddingh, of Lawrence, to remove all 67 trees just before the Otago Daily Times visited her in Arrowtown yesterday.
"My first comment was, when's it going to start happening, and he said it's a time factor. I presume that means contracts put out, resource consent. I wasn't very impressed. My husband didn't have time.
"Going down that road is like Russian roulette."
Mrs Liggett said there were other instances of old trees and debris falling on to roads throughout the valley, specifically Speargrass Flat Rd.
"There's school buses going up and down twice a day. The whole community would be affected by that.
"You wouldn't want anybody to go through what our family went through."
Mrs Liggett said many residents had told her of their near-misses, but she was believed more people should lobby the council to take action.
While the community had shown the Liggett family its "wonderful heart" in support, some had criticised her for being a "tree-hater".
However, the family had planted thousands of trees as farmers and subdivision developers, she said.
It was a bitter irony Russell Albert Liggett (57) was a tree-lover who had planted hundreds of trees on their property the day before he died.
This Monday would have been the couple's 35th wedding anniversary.
"I've had so many people say poplar trees in general are widow-makers and it's been proven true," Mrs Liggett said.
Mr Buddingh's report was received during the council's community services committee meeting in Queenstown yesterday.
However, it was not an agenda item and caused little debate, despite a 30m high, 100-year-old tree toppling in high winds, 2km from Lower Shotover Rd, on Friday.
Cr Leigh Overton said: "It appears we have a larger problem than perhaps we first realised [when] the first tree fell in Lower Shotover."
Mr Bailey said staff were working on a list of high-traffic roads lined by trees.
"We'll have a priority list for further work."
Exposed trees would be given priority, he said.
Council chief executive Duncan Field said the cost of the exercise to date was $14,300.
Mr Bailey assured the Otago Daily Times last night the recommendation to remove most of the trees would be implemented.
"How could we leave them there when there's only three sound trees? Safety must take precedence in this particular case," he said.
