Trees may be to blame for the crumbling of cliffs near Warwick’s Grand Atlantic housing site, according to developer Gilbert Lopes.Mr Lopes said there’d been a collapse on the shoreline east of Grand Atlantic in the recent months that was probably caused by the tunnelling roots of casuarina trees.“The roots of those trees go down double the distance of the tree, and when the tree falls, it takes a good bit of the cliff,” Mr Lopes told The Royal Gazette.He said he’d extend a shoreline retaining wall and clear out the invasive pines in front of his own section of the site, where the developer hopes to built an additional 47 one-bedroom condos.That project, scaled down from 52 units, is currently before the Department of Planning.“Once I have a permit, I will go back and reinforce the cliff on that side,” Mr Lopes said, pointing out that he still needs to pay off roughly $11 million to Butterfield Bank.Long accustomed to worries over the cliffs by the South Shore development, he said he had followed all necessary recommendations from the survey at the Grand Atlantic site.However, Mr Lopes pointed out that casuarinas ­— a tenacious introduced species blamed for accelerating erosion ­— are gradually making a comeback in front of the development now owned by Government.“The casuarinas are growing back along there, so somebody needs to take care of it,” he said. “They’re all over the place.”Taking care of the coastal edge at Grand Atlantic is now the job of the Bermuda Housing Corporation, Mr Lopes said.