Most of the wood cut from the 146 year old historic ‘Aspen', necklace poplar, cottonwood tree on the McLean Reserve is to be dumped.

Arborists pruned back the remnant of the tree to a stump on Tuesday to render the reserve safe for the Jazz Festival as the reserve is the site of one of the festival stages.

Stumps to be dumped of the ‘Aspen' tree.

The stump will be felled after the festival.

'It's so rotten inside, it's pretty hopeless,” says arborist Phil Sale.

'Just with the size of it and it's poplar you know, you can't give it away normally.

'Some of the best stuff's gone off to the mill.

'It will be cut up and dried and I think they were planning on making some sort of furniture out of it.”

Arbour Care took about 30 tonne of wood off the tree on Tuesday, making a 60 tonne rough total removed from the tree since it dropped an eight tonne branch onto McLean Street on January 17.

'We will use a big excavator and just push it over,” says Phil.

'Where it looks like concrete, that's just plywood with plaster on it to stop the homeless people going in there and lighting fires – because it all caught on fire a few years back when those holes were still open.”

The fire on Guy Fawkes Night in 2007 began the tree's decline says Tauranga City Council team manager city parks Steve Webb.

Until then, the hollow tree had been in a steady state, growing enough wood each year to replace that lost from rot.

'It did go backwards from ‘07, and we think a lot of that would be attributable to that fire,” says Steve.

'Some of those hollow trees can stay in balance for years and years.

'You can have a tree putting on wood at the same or just ahead of the rate that it's losing wood and that balance wasn't there any more – it was going backwards pretty fast.

'Added to that, the other big roots are going back on the uphill, the tension side, and that eight tonne branch smashed one of them.”

The city council is hoping to get about 2-3 cubic metres milled and kiln dried.

In the northern hemisphere, poplar has many uses and historically has been used in packing cases; children's toys, large barn doors due to its light weight and non-warping properties.

Seasoned poplar has also been used to make musical instruments, cabinets, casks, and floorboards. It has been used in some furniture.

'Burr poplar has always been sought after for panelling for kitchens,” says Steve.

'It's got a few uses, but firewood's not really what people want is it.”

The intention is to kiln dry the timber so something can be done with it while the tree is still fresh in people's minds.