High Riverittes will notice a big change coming to 12th Avenue starting today.

The Town's arborist, Darlene Donovan, says during yearly inspections they've determined some of the big poplar trees are nearing the end of their life.

"We do visual inspections on an annual basis and when we see any conditions that are kind of a red flag for us, deteriorating health or that sort of thing, we'll take the time and do a more extensive inspection of the trees," Donovan says. "When we did these we noted some structural concerns and defects that led us to do a really good thorough assessment and we identified nine of the trees that needed to come down."

She says a wind storm or heavy snowstorm could cause the trees or their limbs to come crashing down resulting in a lot of damage.

Motorists are urged to drive through the area cautiously for the next while because of the large equipment that'll be needed to grind the trees down and move the larger pieces away.

Donovan says they will be replaced eventually.

"Assuming that the trunk is ground out enough that we can get a tree spade in there to replace the tree, we'll do that hopefully next year," she says. "If there's too much trunk left then we may have to hold off one year, just wait for that to decompose and then we will replace them with a poplar species in that area."

She says the work will get started Monday and could take a few days.