Just when Auckland has declared a climate crisis and we, at 40 days and at the time of writing this, are in the midst of the biggest drought in our history, the chainsaws are active felling trees all over Auckland. Our trees, the lungs of the city, are disappearing at an alarming rate.
It is also happening by stealth – a few here, a few there. A few trees on Meola Road obstructing the proposed AT cycleway ‘don’t matter’, felling a thousand trees in Chamberlain Park for sports fields ‘is justified’, replacing all exotics on Auckland’s maunga with natives ‘is restoring them to former glory and is okay’.
And then we have the downright deceit – people who don’t want their view or their sun spoilt, just cut down offending trees willy nilly, resource consent or not.
According to a Ponsonby news article by local activist Gael Baldock, Auckland loses three mature trees every day.
One of the biggest controversies of all regarding trees in Auckland right now, is the resource consent gained by Auckland Council to fell all 200-plus old pine trees in Western Springs Forest, replacing them with natives. By the time this Ponsonby News article has gone to press, the Waitemata Local Board will have made its final decision on wholesale felling. That decision was scheduled to take place at a Waitemata Local Board meeting on Tuesday 25 February.
I have a great love of many of our native plants – karaka, kowhai, puriri, taraire, titoki among my favourites – and, of course, the mighty kauri. Kereru love puriri and karaka berries, tui and bellbird love kowhai nectar.
But my reason for the heading ‘trees are trees are trees’, is because as Gael Baldock said in her Ponsonby News article, most birds ‘don’t give a flying fig whether trees are exotic or native’. Birds nest in them, roost in them, burrow into trunks, catch insects in them and show us the great side of a functioning ecosystem.
Trees in a city are a valuable amenity, especially in a city which aspires to be the world’s most liveable city.
In my submission to the council seeking the resource consent to demolish the Western Springs Forest, I supported the granting of the consent, but subject to a number of caveats, including protecting the under-storey of regenerating natives, and ensuring the quick planting of natives for the future development of the replacement native forest. I envisioned a return of the dawn chorus to Western Springs.
I am now far from sure that the proposed replacement regime will be anything like what it needs to be. $80,000 has been allocated for 15,000 replacement natives. Using tiny PB5 natives at five dollars each adds up to $75,000, and takes no account of future weeding, dying seedlings and other maintenance.
Also, the method council will use to extract the pines is totally destructive of the present thriving under-storey of natives growing under the pines. I recommended costing some helicopter lifting out. That has been ignored.
The proposed destruction entails leaving huge logs clogging the forest floor, preventing the planting of a suitable number of replacement natives.
Chainsaw eco-terrorists are in the ascendency here and around Auckland. We desperately need a balanced look at reasons for saving and replacing trees – exotic or native.
The Auckland Council looks incapable of ensuring a balanced approach. Just take the word of bureaucrats in council without question! We elect councillors and board members to be more proactive and enquiring than that. It’s their job to politely but firmly question their advisors. They are not doing that.
Tree advocate Wendy Grey presented to the Waitemata Board a beautiful story/poem by noted author Rob McGowan (Pa Ropata) called ‘Tiwaiwaka’. It emphasised kotahitanga (unity), and said New Zealand’s greatest priority is not economic development but caring for the earth. Caring for the whenua. Rangatiratanga is not about power and authority, it’s about humility and courage. Thank you Pa for your inspiration. It is true and it is timely.
Let’s get our priorities on the right side of history, or we’ll become a barren tarsealed jungle. (John Elliott)
STOP PRESS: A special meeting of the Waitemata Local Board (WLB) was held to make a final decision on the fate of the Western Springs Pine Forest. A surprising event occurred. Ngati Whatua submitted to the board that they had not been consulted on the resource consent application. After some spirited debate Sarah Trotman moved that the decision on the fate of the pines be deferred until further consultation had been undertaken. The motion passed with four votes to three.