Native tree protest in Auckland continues as man creates suspended platform

Wednesday, 26 August 2020

Arborist Zane Wedding is sitting on a suspended platform below a puriri tree on Canal Road, Avondale.

A man protesting against the removal of native trees in Auckland has created a suspended platform in the hopes police won’t be able to remove him.

Arborist Zane Wedding, is currently dangling below a puriri tree on Canal Road in Avondale.

Wedding said his new platform would make it harder for him to be removed than previous activists arrested during the 49-day occupation.

He connected the platform to several other trees in the hopes it would be impossible for contractors to safely fell them.

* Auckland activist occupying pūriri in protest nearly hit by falling tree

* Veteran activist scales tree in protest at felling on Auckland site

Protester Steve Abel was nearly crushed by a falling tree as he occupied a nearby tree in protest of a development. (Video first published on July 21, 2020.)

On Tuesday, WorkSafe lifted a prohibition order on the site and allowed work to continue. Fencing contractors installed a new fence in preparation to fell the 20 remaining trees.

As a result, one protester scaled a tree, while a second entered the site and took up position on an already toppled tree.

Two people were arrested, but police were unable to remove one protester who stayed sitting in a tree all day.

Veteran protester Steve Abel, who last month was almost hit by one of the trees as it fell down, said the plan was to hold off the chainsaws as long as they can.

“We will continue to do everything we can to protect these trees… it’s irreplaceable, there is nothing like it in central Auckland”.

People have been gathering at the site every day since developers moved in on July 10, protesting the felling of more than 40 native trees.

Luke Wijohn, who led the Auckland school strike last year, is occupying a large totara on site.

“There is no place in a climate emergency for cutting down these ancient native trees. They lock in carbon from the atmosphere and play a crucial part in our ecology and the life support systems we all rely on.”

Both Wedding and Wijohn said they will stay in the trees as long as possible.

Save Canal Road Native Trees is calling on Auckland Council to buy the property as a public reserve.

The group also wants the Government to reinstate general tree protection.

In July Mayor Phil Goff told Stuff his team was working hard to reverse amendments made to the Resource Management Act in 2012 that allowed for trees to be cut down on private properties without consent.

“There are groups of trees like this all over our city that have no protection. We need to reverse the amendments [made] in 2012 and the best way to protect these trees is to get change in the legislation to get group protection.”

Auckland Council’s Environment Committee said it would explore this legally first and told protesters it did not want to offer any false hope that it could be possible.