Calls to shut large Auckland regional park to stop kauri extinction

Wednesday, 9 August 2017

A dead kauri in the Waitakere Ranges, killed by dieback disease.

The rampant spread of kauri dieback through the Waitakere Ranges has sparked calls to urgently close the popular Auckland regional park.

Maori and three environmental groups were calling for the ban, or rahui, on the 16,000 hectares of native forest as an Auckland Council report released on August 9 showed measures to protect the trees were not working.

The large green area at the left of this unitary plan map of Auckland is the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park.

Nearly a quarter of the trees in the park's 2571 hectares of kauri forest were either infected or possibly infected, the report said.

And the infection was worst around where humans walk, with about 68 per cent of all kauri dieback zones within 50 metres of the track network.

One of the authors of the report, council biosecurity advisor Nick Waipara in front a dying kauri, named Agatha, in the Waitakere Ranges.

Kauri dieback disease on the Maungaroa Ridge Track in the Waitakere Ranges above Piha in west Auckland.

* Kauri dieback is rampant in the Waitakere Ranges, new study shows

* Kauri dieback study to track disease in the Waitakere Ranges**

A map from the report showing infected kauri concentrated near Piha, the black dots.

Te Kawerau a Maki executive chairman Te Warena Taua said in a council press release that 'a threat to the heart of this forest is devastating'.

'A rahui, restricting access, may prevent further spread of this disease and, over time, allow the forest to heal itself.'

The four expert authors had called in their report for an independent review of 'the merit, implications and practicality of preventing public access'.

'This is not an easy recommendation to make but considering the evidence we believe that it may not be possible to prevent the continued spread of kauri dieback from infected areas without this option,' they said.

A diagram from the report showing kauri in the park with the disease, in red, and kauri possibly with the disease, in pink.

Three environmental groups – The Tree Council, Waitakere Ranges Protection Society, and the regional Forest and Bird – agreed, issuing a joint press release.

The forest must be shut and reopened when measures are taken to protect the kauri from extinction, they said.

A kauri killed by dieback disease in the Waitakere Ranges.

'We must take drastic action now,' The Tree Council secretary Dr Mels Barton said.

The cost of implementing the required measures was about $50 million, the council needed government help, and enforcement action needed to be taken against people flouting such a ban.

'The current measures are not working and infection rates have more than doubled in five years as a result of inadequate investment,' she said.

'Over recent years Auckland Council has cut the budget for biosecurity work on kauri dieback and lost key staff.'

Councillor Penny Hulse, chair of the council's Environment and Community Committee, said in a press release the future of other parts of Auckland where the disease has not yet reached needed to be considered, as well as the health of the Waitakere Ranges.

'This means stronger protection measures and some very tough decisions.'

The council said in its press release it would consider further funding as part of its long-term plan.

Forest and Bird regional manager Nick Beveridge slammed the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) response to the biosecurity threat as a 'shambolic failure' and said its budget needed to be increased.

The responsibility for kauri dieback disease lay with the government agency, it said.

'MPI received $26.5 million from the government to run the Kauri Dieback Programme. We know that some of this was spent on upgrading tourism infrastructure like boardwalks through infected forests, rather than on funding urgent biosecurity measures,' he said.

'Community groups and iwi are now talking about closing public access to Waitakere ranges, which is bad enough, but without a multi-agency, fully funded and urgent plan for stopping this disease we risk losing these iconic forest giants altogether.'

MPI principal conservation advisor Erik Van Eyndhoven said the ministry was disappointed in views the disease has not been managed well 'and strongly refutes these claims'.

Of the Government's $26.5m over four years announced in 2014, $4.8m was for MPI – for science and research, communications, engagement and staff resources.

'MPI provides overall coordination of effort and a focus on science, national engagement and supporting surveillance,' he said.

'MPI is not responsible for delivering operational work on DOC or council administered land.

A lot of good work has occured as part of the Kauri Dieback Programme, he said.

This included, increased public awareness, $3m on science that included developing treatment tools and more effective cleaning stations.

Five hundred hectares of kauri forest on private land has been protected, and hundreds of kilometres of DOC tracks have been upgraded at at risk sites.

'Ultimately, the Kauri Dieback Report 2017 reinforces is that this is a pernicious disease and it is hard to control.'

Waitakere Ranges kauri dieback report findings

Preliminary findings from the council's Kauri Dieback Report 2017 were released on December 18, 2016, when it was revealed the number of trees infected with kauri dieback in the Waitakere Ranges had nearly tripled – from 7 per cent to 19 per cent.

The full report, now peer-reviewed and released to the public, showed the number increased from 7.9 per cent to 18.95 per cent, but that there were also a further 4.65 per cent possibly infected.

About 68 per cent of kauri dieback zones were within 50 metres of walking tracks.

Infection cannot be stopped from spreading within kauri stands, and 58.3 per cent of significant kauri areas over 5 hectares in size were infected.

Because healthy kauri near infected kauri would catch the disease, 33.4 per cent of kauri areas in the park were already infected or possibly infected.

The park was the 'most heavily kauri dieback infected area currently recorded' in the country, the report said.

Tracks that had been closed to protect kauri, about 10 per cent of the entire network, were still being used by humans and had feral pigs.

'Data would suggest the creation of kauri protection zones has not slowed the rate of kauri dieback expression within these zones,' the report said.

The report said that little is known about how long it takes after the disease was present in soil to when a tree appeared sick, and as such the increase since 2010 'cannot be definitively concluded' as to being due to new infection or an increase in symptoms.

They found that cleaning stations were not being used properly 46 per cent of the time and the spray bottle and brush cleaning stations had 'inherent flaws such as the inability to capture debris/infected soil removed from footwear and they are difficult to use'.

The increased popularity of geocaching in the park was identified as a problem, and should be reviewed as it was 'likely to spread kauri dieback'.

'Finally we advocate an independent review of the merit, implications and practicality of preventing public access to the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park be carried out.'

Kauri Dieback Report 2017 by Simon Smith on Scribd