Slow progress on upgrading tracks as fight against kauri dieback continues

Wednesday, 5 December 2018

The Kitekite Falls track should be re-open by Christmas.

Few tracks in Auckland's Waitākere Ranges are to re-open this summer.

The forest was mostly closed from May to protect kauri from dieback, a disease largely spread by mud on human shoes.

Auckland Council senior park ranger Stu Leighton said progress has been made towards reopening tracks but it was slow going due to making sure they were done to standard.

'We were probably optimistic and we're probably going a little slower [than we hoped].'

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Auckland Council senior park ranger Stu Leighton says re-opening tracks is a long process.

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Leighton said the Kitekite Falls track at Piha is set to re-open before Christmas, dependant on weather, and he hoped part of a track by Arataki Visitor Centre, in the lower loop of the nature trail, would also re-open this summer.

The council would soon consult on what tracks it should focus on re-opening over the next three years.

Leighton said the council would walk through the tracks with local iwi Te Kawerau ā Maki and engineers, to work out what needed to be done.

Volunteers had also been helping out in lifting building materials down the tracks, he said.

The Kitekite Falls track was among those closed earlier this year to stop the spread of kauri dieback.

Kauri dieback was found in the Waitākere Ranges in 2006.

It kills every tree it infects and there is no known cure. Scientists say the disease is largely spread by mud on walkers' boots.

In December 2017, local iwi Te Kawerau ā Maki put in place a rāhui, or cultural prohibition, to ban access to the forest, saying the death of the kauri posed an existential threat to the iwi.

On May 1 this year, Auckland politicians closed the forested areas of the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park, as well 10 higher-risk tracks in the Hunua Ranges Regional Park, to protect against kauri dieback disease and prevent its spread.

The Tree Council secretary Dr Mels Barton said it would be unlikely for more tracks, other than Kitekite Falls, to re-open up for the summer period.

'Things will be open when they're ready to be open and that's when they've been done properly and meet the standards going forward,' she said.

Barton said things were moving slowly as the tracks were run down and having to be completely rebuilt.

However, there had been an 'enormous' shift over the past year in fighting kauri dieback, she said.

'I do think we're making progress and have come a very long way but I think none of this is an instant answer, it's about precaution and time.

'There are some areas of this forest that are going to be closed forever and people are just going to have to get over it.'

Auckland councillors Penny Hulse and Alf Filipaina wrote an open letter to the public on November 22.

It asked for patience while tracks were upgraded, and said they were doing all they could.

Leighton said that despite the council not issuing any fines or trespass notices to September, there would be more compliance officers and security in place at tracks over summer to ensure people obeyed the rules.