Labour Increases Protection for Kauri Dieback

Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, October 10th, 2020 - 10 comments
Categories: Conservation, election 2020, Environment, jacinda ardern, labour, uncategorized - Tags:

In an announcement that will probably gain them few extra votes but still warms the cockles of my heart, Labour have promised to put Kauri Dieback on the same scale of national disease response as Bovine Tuberculosis and Kiwifruit PSA.

They have also proposed an extra $32 million over five year to combat this disease.

For my home patch in the Waitakere Ranges, the Kauris in my property are beautifully healthy, and need four people to get their hands around. And there’s one in a secret place about 400 metres from our house which is at least as wide as Tane Mahuta itself. No other city in the world intersects as Auckland does with a subtropical rainforest.

But just over the ridge in what used to be Colin McCahon’s stomping ground, most of them have died off, and they have to stand there and rot until they fall because it’s too hard to take them down without spreading it further.

As Labour Leader Jacinda Ardern noted today: “Our Kauri forests are among the most ancient in the world, are a taonga for Maori, protect local ecosystems and they’re under threat from Kauri dieback.”

Three years ago it was already recognised that the Kauri forest within the Waitakere Ranges were the fastest-infected and essentially it was out of control and on the way to wiping them all out.

The scale of threat to the whole of the Waitakere Ranges from weeds, pests, bird kill, and most other measures, is set out here in 2018.

This is despite most of the land being in Watercare management, or Auckland Council management, and despite massive and intensive efforts to push the damage back at a really large scale as in Ark in the Park.

or on a house-by-house intensive eradication and control programme like the award-winning South Titirangi Neighbourhood Network.

The heroes who have dedicated decades of their lives to this are local legends. The Waitakeres are awash with dozens of activist grouper trying to reverse the damage and restore the mauri of Tane O Tiriwa. It’s still not enough against this disease.

Many of the tracks into the forest are simply locked away, and others are highly managed with movement-activated turnstiles and disinfectant footwear baths. It’s almost like COVID19 access for trampers now. If the Waitakere ones are in trouble, the remaining Northland forests are also a mess.

A National Pest Management Plan is the strongest tool available under the Biosecurity Act, so this raise in threat response makes it one of only four similar-scaled national responses.

Hopefully we see Auckland Council match this funding and this effort. We are now a country in which defending against foreign disease is the overriding and restoring its damage to ourselves and our country is our strongest overriding security risk.

Great to see Labour turning again to the practicalities of conservation.

10 comments on “Labour Increases Protection for Kauri Dieback ”

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  1. Dennis Frank 1
    10 October 2020 at 10:14 am

    Yeah, good to see the initiative. What the situation really requires is intensive investigation by microbiologists, I reckon. To determine the causative factors. If it is indeed climate-change induced, then damage-control won't go very far eh?

    I have yet to see a comprehensive report of the causal analysis. Rearranging ambulances at the bottom of the cliff may be no more helpful than a wish & a hope.

  2. solkta 2
    10 October 2020 at 10:20 am

    The plural of "Kauri" is "Kauri".

  3. Gabby 3
    10 October 2020 at 10:56 am

    What's the genitive?

  4. Byd0nz 4
    10 October 2020 at 1:34 pm

    This is a response sorely needed for the future health of these iconic trees, NZ would be the poorer if the Kauri should be no more.

  5. Patricia Bremner 5
    11 October 2020 at 10:21 am

    Good, this is the money and expertise needed to tackle this in a concerted way.

    Micoplasma bovis is down to 4 properties now.

    Myrtle Rust has finance and a dedicated team to form policy and do discovery work and people engagement. For instance, controlling the movement of beehives. People photographing incursions and reporting.

    We need these type of organised approaches to Kauri die back. Thank you Thank you.

    We have some of the world's longest lived trees, and we are only now beginning to realise how intricate and important the different soil microbial functions are in terms of tree and crop health.

    This will employ people in a field of endeavour which will be important to our future and the taonga that is kauri.

  6. Chris T 6
    11 October 2020 at 2:26 pm

    Was looking at this thread yesterday and am still wondering why the Govt suddenly brings out this for the election when they had 3 years knowing it was happening.

    • Patricia Bremner 6.1
      11 October 2020 at 4:40 pm

      Because micoplasma bovis mytle rust PSA and climate related problems with water use, then the tragic shooting and erruption events followed by a world wide pandemic. This follows other work underway and underpins it. A rhetorical question ChrisT