This is a tale of two trees: the gum which locals want to save, and the radiata pines, which can't be got rid of soon enough.
The gum is a Blue Mountains Ash in Megalong Street, Katoomba, possibly one of the biggest and oldest in the Mountains. It has a girth of more than five metres and stands about 40 metres tall on the nature strip, towering over nearby houses.
But Peter and Maureen Toy, who live in the house closest to the tree, are concerned that it may be taken down after an arborist told them it was diseased.
The Toys dispute that and think that, if there are any problems with the tree, they were created when the developer next door used a bobcat to grade the soil around the tree's roots before laying lawn down around it.
Mr Toy said he was "shocked" at the news the tree was ailing.
The couple call the tree Atlas because of its size and grandeur and said it had withstood fierce windstorms, road-widening and nearby development. They have placed signs on the tree, started a petition and lodged a complaint with the council.
While the Toys are fighting to keep their tree, not far away, in Mt Victoria, locals have an arboreal problem of a different kind.
Ailsa Street, behind the Anglican Church, is the darkest street in the Mountains they say, shaded for the entire winter by 10 radiata pines which dominate the northern side of the road, five in the church yard and five along the nature strip.
Vanessa McGarrigle, who has lived in the street for 14 years, says she has battled the council to either have them removed or at least pruned.
"It's really depressing having no sun. It's just terrible," she said.
She said she has contacted the council several times, the last time after the big windstorm of July 2012.
"They said we sent out an inspector and they are all perfectly healthy and fine. But even if they are technically healthy, the people living on the south side of them aren't."
Her neighbours feel the same. Rachel Kinross, two doors away, says her house actually feels damp during winter.
"The house gets quite cold and dark and mouldy. We get a snippet of sun on the side of the house in the afternoon but almost by the time we run out there, it's gone.
"Even just a bit of a cutback would be so good, just so next winter we could have a bit of brightness."
Radiata pines are listed as weeds on the council website but official policy is only to remove trees which are a risk to the public. Council refused the Anglican Church's application in 2012 to take down the pines on its property because there was no such risk. It inspected the five on council land in June and won't remove them because they are healthy and stable, a spokeswoman said.
As for the Blue Mountains Ash, the council spokeswoman said the tree is very old and had been in decline before the development works. An arborist will report on the condition of the tree when the work is finished but council has no plans to remove the tree at this stage, she said.
