Letters: kauri dieback and the state of our Village

In the face of the misinformation being spread regarding kauri dieback disease and the closure of tracks in the Waitākere Ranges, we write to clarify the situation.

The Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area Act does indeed require Council to “balance conservation and recreation” but this does not mean that all the tracks should be reopened. Rather, allowing the forest to die by promoting recreation when we know that that will contribute to the spread of a disease which is an existential threat to the forest itself would indeed be a breach of the Act.

Opposition to track closures within the Waitākere Ranges ignores a number of facts. For a start there is the fact that 40 tracks are still open. Then there is the fact that it is Phytophthora agathidicida that is causing trees to die: not climate change, 1080, glyphosate, 5G or any of the other crackpot theories being promoted. Then there is the proven fact that people are the number one vector for spreading the disease in the Waitākere Ranges. This is evidence-based fact, backed by monitoring data collected over nine years by qualified plant pathologists and biosecurity officers with decades of experience. The Auckland Council Monitoring Report was peer reviewed by the Department of Conservation prior to its release. It has subsequently been reviewed by the Council’s RIMU department and by one of the top international Phytophthora experts in the world. It is credible, evidence-based, scientific fact.

Kauri dieback has been described by Jack Craw, ex Biosecurity Manager for Auckland Council as “easily the most daunting and dangerous organism l have encountered in my 40 years in biosecurity” – and it is.

The control of this disease is extremely difficult as it is a new organism to science and there are so many unknowns. We don’t know how to kill it, what else it infects, or exactly where it is. We don’t know how long it takes between infection of a root, expression of symptoms in a tree and death. But we do know that it kills kauri. It kills all trees that it infects. It kills trees of all ages and all health conditions.

We also know that it lives in the soil as microscopic spores that are so small that you can get 1000 of them in a pinhead of soil. It takes a single spore to infect a new tree – or a new forest if a person takes that soil somewhere else. The only management tool available is quarantine – and this is what the rāhui and its enforcement by the Council closures aims to do: to prevent further spread of this disease within and out of this infected forest.

We need to wake up to what kauri dieback could really mean for New Zealand’s forests and stop moaning about the fact that we need to go somewhere else for a walk while the tracks are upgraded. We need to be grateful that Te Kawerau ā Maki took the huge step of placing the rāhui and that the vast majority of the public are respecting it and staying out of the forest. We need to be grateful that Auckland Council are taking this far more seriously than the Government and have actually done detailed surveillance monitoring over the last nine years to track the spread of the pathogen. We need to be grateful that the Auckland public overwhelmingly voted to spend $100 million of our

One-day festival planned for Green Bay

Melanie Wittwer from Green Bay Writers has been teaching a kids creative writing class in Green Bay for a year while Louise Stevenson has been teaching art classes, also in Green Bay. Together they are organising a Kids Art and Writers Festival for Saturday 28 March, 11am-3pm at the Green Bay Community House, Barron Drive, Green Bay. There will be art and writing activities, a story corner and food and refreshments. The desired outcome of the festival, apart from getting kids interested in art and creative writing, is to create a poster that represents the community of Green Bay. Everyone is invited and attendance is free. money over the next 10 years on fighting this disease and upgrading tracks so that we can all get back into the parts of the forest that it is safe to enter. But we must have patience.

This work will take time and needs to be done properly. Track closure is proven to stop disease spread. This is something we need to do until a cure is found, or until tracks can be board-walked and made safe.

Yes, we are all heartbroken that the Waitākere Ranges tracks are closed. Yes, many of our personal favourite tracks are unlikely to be reopened in our lifetime, because they lead to areas of currently healthy kauri that we must protect if the species is to survive. Yes, we all love the bush and being in the bush. But this isn’t about what we want. This is about protecting the Waitākere Ranges forest and the other kauri forests in New Zealand so they are still there for future generations. It is about Auckland Council being a responsible manager of the public lands and the indigenous forest that it is tasked with protecting by the Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area Act, the Biosecurity Act, the Local Government Act and the Resource Management Act.

Dr Mels Barton, The Tree Council John Edgar, Waitakere Ranges Protection Society Jack Craw, Auckland Council Biosecurity Manager 2003-14

Dear Editor,

I wonder if anyone else thinks our once pretty little Village is now dirty and shabby. Such a shame.

I’m sure others must be aware of what’s happening – either that or I’m a grumpy individual! Even the bus stop looks like it’s been dropped off the back of a rubbish truck.

Louise Nicholson

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