Auckland tree cleared of kauri dieback, but community remains vigilant

Thursday, 21 June 2018

Tests have ruled out kauri dieback in a park in a bushy suburb on Auckland's North Shore, but the council remains cautious.

In May, Auckland Council identified a tree in Birkenhead's Chelsea Heritage Park as potentially infected by kauri dieback and sent soil samples for testing.

The tree returned a negative result for kauri dieback disease, but was found to be infected with Phytophthora cinnamomi.

Phytophthora cinnamomi is widespread across the Auckland region, and affects a wide range of host species. It presents similar symptoms and is a kauri pathogen, but is less likely to result in tree death than kauri dieback disease.

**READ MORE:

* Kauri dieback spreads to a city park on Auckland's North Shore

* Kauri dieback: National treasure on the brink of extinction

* Call to close all kauri forests

* The kauri dieback dilemma: Why our native trees will be fine**

Like kauri dieback disease, Phytophthora cinnnamomi is also spread via soil movement.

A walking track beside the infected kauri, accessed from Blundell Pl in Birkenhead, remained closed until at least July.

North Shore councillor Richard Hills said due to the long incubation period of kauri dieback disease, further testing will continue in Chelsea Heritage Park and other kauri in the area.

'At this stage, we can confidently say we are kauri dieback free in the Kaipātiki area, but don't count it out yet,' Hills said.

Hills said the recently confirmed natural environment targeted rate will accelerate the work of the kauri dieback programme across Auckland.

'As a result of Aucklanders supporting this targeted rate, kauri dieback protection has increased from $5 million over the next 10 years to $100 million,' he said.

'We're ramping up our efforts, but it will take full community participation – everyone using the tracks will need to be vigilant if we want to save our precious kauri.'

Kaipātiki Local Board chairman John Gillon said, despite the negative test result, the board was still cautious about the threat of kauri dieback being brought into the area.  

'With the surge of tourists and recreational walkers turned away from the Waitākere Ranges, there is the potential for the disease to spread here,' Gillon said.

'We'll be working with our parks and biosecurity experts to protect our Kaipātiki kauri as a matter of priority.'

Gillion said, if further tracks in the Kaipātiki area needed to be closed or access restricted to protect kauri, the board would look at bringing other local tracks up to a better standard or opening up new tracks to still provide recreational walkers with options.

Visitors to kauri forest should clean their footwear and equipment before entering kauri areas and after leaving.