Saving Ōwairaka/Mt Albert's trees: becoming an activist at almost 100 years old

Wednesday, 27 November 2019

Richmond Afford flew planes in World War II. When he got back to Auckland, he entered the insurance game. Now, at 96, Afford's having a shot at activism.

If he was 'a bit younger', he reckons, he'd be camped overnight with protesters occupying Ōwairaka/Mt Albert. Afford's up there every few days instead, drinking tea with them, discussing trees and ecology and birdlife, pondering the world on a bench erected in memory of his late wife, Leola.

Afford and the occupiers believe in saving the maunga's 345 non-native trees – including 131 cherries, century-old oaks, and an olive grove – from the chainsaws of the Tūpuna Maunga Authority (TMA).

'Cut down healthy trees? No. Just no. The idea of it is so very sad,' says Afford, who regularly trekked across farmland as a child from Blockhouse Bay to picnic atop Mt Albert's summit. 

**READ MORE:

* Protesters vow to occupy Auckland's Ōwairaka/Mt Albert 24/7 to block removal of trees

* Mt Albert tree removal: Date for hui announced

* For the greater good I'm happy to say goodbye to Mount Albert's trees**

He now lives at its foot, in a house that had been there for almost 100 years when he bought it in the 1950s. Afford's planted ponga, nīkau, māhoe, and kauri around the bungalow, alongside camellias and blooming beds of poppies. He loves plants and has done, he says, since he was 11.

That was when an uncle started taking him on expeditions – up the slopes of Ruapehu, down to Stewart Island – to collect plant specimens for Auckland Museum's herbarium.

At 15, Afford signed up as founding member of the Auckland Botanical Society. After the war, he rose to be president of the Auckland Natural History Club. Afford organised working bees to tackle Rangitoto Island's weeds and plant pōhutukawa on Motuihe Island. He's still mad that a Motuihe farmer's cattle destroyed those beloved saplings.

Afford's favourite tree on Mt Albert is safe because it's a native. A kahikatea he planted 'on the sly, a few decades ago', it commemorates a friend of Afford's who died. But Afford says others planted non-natives for late loved ones – which will be cut down down if the TMA's council-consented plan goes ahead.

His reasons for backing the protesters are not purely sentimental, however: 'These trees are beautiful, the birds adore them, and they shelter young trees coming through,' he says.

The TMA, which co-governs all Auckland maunga as part of a Treaty settlement, aims to clear the 14 mountains of exotic trees and plant natives in their wake. The 345 mature exotics on Mt Albert would be replaced with 13,000 native seedlings. 

Chairman of the TMA Paul Majurey has said it's part of 'a long-term view that these taonga are restored and are enhanced as wāhi tapu and as native wildlife habitats for generations to come'. The Tree Council and Forest and Bird have voiced support of the vision, though its timing and process have been questioned by independent experts as well as the local community.

The TMA scheduled the felling in the midst of nesting season, for instance, which bird scientist Dr Lynn Miller has said would frighten adult birds off the mountain – leaving their fledglings for dead.

Up the mountain, Afford's fellow protesters sit in deck chairs behind placards declaring 'This Is Climate Injustice!' and 'Save Our Birds!' A handful of tents are to their left, home to anyone on the night shift.

Monica Austen, a local Justice of the Peace, says her husband accuses her of spending more time on the maunga than at home.

'My kids told me, 'Mum! You have to save the trees' …. We love them all.'

The protesters were labelled 'culturally ignorant' by an Auckland councillor, which appalled them. One of their members, Yolanda Heta-Lensen, teaches Māori protocol at Unitec and she rejects the idea the stand-off is a race issue.

'I grew up on this maunga and cannot see the need for [the TMA's] drastic action,' she said.

Heta-Lensen points out that peacefully protesting authorities is a right in New Zealand, and that Māori authorities should not be exempt from criticism.  

'The way they're behaving will hurt this landscape and it's hurting the local people,' she said.

'That's not our kaupapa. Well, it's not mine anyway.'

Tūī swoop in paris and trios around Ōwairaka/Mt Albert, chasing each other from pūriri to cherry to gum to pōhutukawa. Pink and yellow ribbons have been tied around the cherries and gums – most of the exotics, in fact – by those fighting to save them.

Walking the maunga's tracks, it's apparent the TMA's plan is far from a clear-fell. Existing natives are plentiful. But there are bright ribbons in almost every direction.

Back in Afford's living room, he says he can't see why the new natives can't be planted around old exotics.

'Plant more trees by all means. And demolish old ones when they become unsafe. Take the rubbishy stuff out too, nobody's got an objection to that.

'But you don't have to chop healthy existing ones down to do any of that.'

At this point in our interview he notices a fat bumble bee lumbering across his carpet, and cheers up a bit.

'He's a beauty!' Afford declares, gently encouraging the insect onto a book, so it can be released into the garden. He then acknowledges his life is likely nearly over. That his aim in lending his voice to the Ōwairaka/Mt Albert protest is 'for the future' – which is what the TMA says removal of the non-native trees is for, too.

Afford wrote an essay about the maunga in the1980s, which he reads aloud from faded print:

'Climb it you must,' he reads.

'Cherish it you must. Small it may be, but as you challenge its slopes it unfolds views of incomparable expanse. From the Waitemata to North Shore, from the Coromandel to the Hunuas. To the Manukau and our blue mountains, the Waitakeres.

'Remember, you tread the sacred ground of early Māori. As indeed it should be for all of us.'