Kauri dieback: Politicians vote to close most of West Auckland forest

Tuesday, 10 April 2018

Kauri in the Waitākere Ranges are under threat, and politicians are closing the park to protect them.

The decision has been made to close the large regional park to the west of Auckland.

Some tracks in the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park would remain open from May 1 but only those that had been agreed with local iwi were safe for kauri.

The decision made by councillors on April 10 put Auckland Council track closures on the same page with Te Kawerau ā Maki's rāhui, enacted on December 1.

Environment committee chairwoman Penny Hulse said council staff had been working tirelessly on the closure.

* Impending closure of Waitākere Ranges has businesses wanting certainty**

Of the 172 walking tracks in the Waitākere Ranges, between 34 and 44 would be open come May 1.

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The closure of the 16,000 hectare forest needed $1.18 million that was not budgeted for, with $740,000 of this needed in the 2017/18 financial year.

It was expected it would be backed up with a Controlled Area Notice on May 1.

The council currently had $3m to spend on kauri dieback over the next decade, excluding staff costs.

Tracks are being closed to stop the rampant spread of kauri dieback disease.

Its proposed environmental targeted rate would provide either another $83.6m or $95m to fight the disease.

Regional park manager Rachel Kelleher said the council consultation on the closure had more than 800 pieces of feedback, with 24 per cent of submitters saying what has been passed was about right and another 25 per cent saying more tracks should be closed.

However, 43 per cent of submitters felt too many tracks were to be closed and the impact on the community too great.

People wanted more investment in research into the disease, and an emphasis on education instead of enforcement, Kelleher said.

There was also scepticism among the public that people were the main cause of spreading the disease, she said.

Waitākere councillor Linda Cooper said dieback disease in the Waitākere Ranges was a national issue, and closing the forest - unless it was safe for kauri - was the right way forward.

'Everybody is watching how we deal with this, so it is important to get it right,' she said.

THE DISEASE ACROSS AUCKLAND

It was now known that kauri dieback was also widespread on the Awhitu Peninsula in southwest Auckland, and kauri in north Auckland were in poor health.

Biosecurity manager Phil Brown said the major areas of kauri forest in Auckland not infected by dieback disease included the Hunua Ranges, to the east of the city, Waiheke Island and some smaller areas.

The council also voted on April 10 to close some tracks in the Hunua Ranges to protect the healthy trees there.

What tracks would be closed in the Hunua ranges can be found here.

Kauri dieback across Auckland in 2018 by Simon Smith on Scribd

MĀORI SUPPORT

Te Kawerau ā Maki placed a rāhui, or cultural prohibition, on entering the Waitākere forest on December 1, 2017.

Local iwi Te Kawerau ā Maki put a rāhui in place to ban access to the forest in December, saying the death of kauri posed an existential threat to the iwi.

Chief executive Edward Ashby said it had been working with the council but it was not 'quite in 100 per cent agreement' with its list of tracks that could stay open by May 1.

Ashby said there were about 13 tracks the iwi was happy to open.

The pou at the Arataki Visitor Centre in the Waitākere Ranges. Te Kawerau ā Maki's ancestors stand as guardians of the forest.

'As of right now I don't believe the majority of those tracks are fit for purpose. But we are committed to work with council as part of the rolling opening.'

Ashby said there was significant worry about the impact of the closures on people and businesses, but it was secondary to the kauri.

'Our position is that if you don't have an environment you are dead in the water,' he said.

Independent Māori Statutory Board member Tony Kake said this was a good example of the council stepping up to its responsibilities under The Treaty of Waitangi.

It was a decision for our children's children, he said.

DISSIDENT VOICES

Councillor Mike Lee said the flaw with the council's approach was it was focused on quarantine and not on treatment of the disease and its research.

AWOL Canyoning had consent to take about 1700 people down two canyons in the Waitākere Ranges a year. It was one of about 40 businesses threatened by the forest closures.

'Stopping tracks might stop people, but it wont stop the phytophthora,' he said.

The council needed the support of the people of Auckland, who all owned the park, Lee said.

'What we could be doing, if we are not careful, is we could be creating a leper colony for kauri in the ranges and then leaving them.'

Pip Mandis of Awesome Walks and the Waitakere Experience Networking Group.

Hulse disagreed, and said the council was treating trees with phosphite as well as closing the forest.

Auckland resident Paul Davies told councillors he regularly hiked in the Waitākere Ranges.

He said the disease could be spread on a pinhead of soil, not just by humans but also pigs, possums, rats, birds, water and wind.

'There is no data on how much of the disease is spread by the human vector,' he said.

Instead of closing tracks, the council should collect more data, and invest more in research to ensure closures didn't backfire and make the spread of the disease worse.

Waitākere Experience Networking Group president Pip Mandis represented 113 tourism and hospitality providers operating in the Waitākere Ranges.

'Over 40 per cent of the businesses will be severely impacted by the decisions that are made today.'

The council has not consulted on any special treatment to concessionaires, in that they would have the same access to the forest that the public did, she said.

Mandis was worried about the wider impact on tourism, and what might happen on social media.

'The concern that I have is the more that is closed, the fences, the security patrols, heaven forbid the photographs going viral of families being turned away with their small children trying to go for an innocent walk or what have you – those are the pictures that are going to go viral on social media. Those are the images that will define us.'

'COMPLEX AND CONFUSING'

The Tree Council secretary Dr Mels Barton said it welcomed the forest closure, but the track closures did not match with a Controlled Area Notice because they would not be up to scratch to keep all soil off footwear by May 1.

Barton said the council's plan to keep some tracks open and close others was 'complex and confusing'.

There needed to be a simple, easy to understand, logical strategy for the public that was easy to comply with, she said.

The council should have closed the whole forest and then let people know when tracks were being opened.