West Auckland forest closure is not being enforced

Thursday, 27 September 2018

Auckland Council is yet to issue a single fine or trespass notice after making much of the Waitākere Ranges off-limits four months ago.

It voted in April to keep the public out of the large regional park to the west of the city, in an attempt to buy time against kauri dieback disease.

Environment committee chairperson Penny Hulse defended the lack of action, saying the available enforcement options were limited.

But Dr Mels Barton of The Tree Council said the council has abdicated its responsibility.

**READ MORE:

* Fines and compliance officers to enforce forest closure

* Kauri dieback: National treasure on the brink of extinction

* Vote nears on Waitākere forest closure**

'They haven't done education, they haven't done fines, they haven't done anything, really,' she said. 

Barton wanted council officers to use the punitive tools available to them before the 'hoards of self-entitled' people arrived over summer. 

'I would like them to go hard over the next month with enforcement. Send staff out, issue trespass notices and publicise that action to warn off other people,' she said. 

'Kauri are our canary in the coal mine. If we don't make this work, we will be stuffed.'

A community-led audit of the tracks was currently underway, said Barton.

Volunteers had already found tracks without signs, and other breeches to the council's current policy.

Kauri dieback was first discovered in a cluster of kauri trees in the Waitākere Ranges in 2006 and it was formally identified in 2008.

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

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

Chief executive Edward Ashby said while many Aucklanders had supported the council's closure, there was still a large minority that were breaking it. 

'There are people within council who are trying, but the organisation as a whole needs to do better,' he said. 

'Council has come a long way on this issue. We are still working with them, and still arguing with them.'

The April vote made all but 23 tracks off limits to the public. 

People using the open trails were required to remove every speck of dirt from shoes when entering and exiting, or risk a fine of up to $2000.

Other forested parts were off limits, and people could be trespassed.

Regional parks manager Rachel Kelleher said the primary focus at this stage was educating visitors to the open tracks about the cleaning requirements rather than penalising users.

'We are seeing very high levels of compliance when we have a compliance officer at the track entrance,' Kelleher said.

Hulse said that right from the beginning the council had feared it would be unable to enforce the fines and trespass notices.

'It's really impossible to ensure full closure,' Hulse said. 

'This is not like a parking ticket where you have a car with a registration that can be traced back to an owner. Our rangers and security officers are not police.'

Hulse said there were stubborn people who were 'delighting in going into closed tracks, but they would do that anyway.'

The goal was to educate the majority of Aucklanders on the importance of sticking to open tracks, she said.

Hulse also wanted people to focus on the long-term efforts of the council where there may be fewer tracks but they would be better made. 

'At the moment we are in between people who are grumpy at us for closing anything and those who were grumpy with us for keeping anything open,' she said. 

'We are stuck somewhere in between.'