I absolutely agree. James Shaw IS the right person…and he is on to it here. Labour AND Greens need to work together…to cut off Nact. I look to the Positive change that BOTH Labour and Greens have achieved…and would dread the Nact rollback. Which would happen from the get..go.
Not worth a whole post, but annoying to get a flyer in my letterbox exhorting me to submit against Auckland's Tipuna Maunga who own and operate the volcanic cone parks of Auckland.
Tipuna Maunga are required to go to public consultation about their parks management, including removing a lot of scrappy non-native trees and re-planting them with native ones.
You can check out the usual coded racist bullshit at:
honourthemaunga.org.nz
Where were these people when over a third of Auckland's trees were chopped down over the last ten years to make way for development? Where were they at the tree protests in Avondale last year?
Where were these people when it came to replanting Motutapu Island, or the rahui on the Waitakere Ranges because the Council just sat on its ass?
Where were these people when it came to the Waitakere Ranges legislation, or the formation of Ark in the Park, or indeed on any native re-planting day by Forest and Bird?
Answer they were nowhere, because they are just a bunch BANANA hypocrites.
The Maunga Authority have already made moves that Auckland Parks Department never had the courage to do, like remove most of the cattle and sheep off parks, build decent tracks with steps, stop the cars to the top of Mt Eden, and tougher limits on traffic access elsewhere. Actual traffic-free parks.
So anyway I've submitted, telling them to get on with it faster.
"“It didn’t take long to realise we had unwittingly walked into an intersection of complex and highly nuanced issues that drive to the core of our society”."
An astroturf org founded by Mr Short with a couple of nobodies, a nonagenarian and a Western BOP blow-in, as patrons has more than TREE issues. Shocked, I am.
"I'm not familiar with those specific comments," Radford said. "But with any public interest issue you get all sorts of people coming out of the woodwork."
Ah well….all is revealed. Cheers for that. Didnt think he would be a "Man of the Trees". Just using it as a nasty ploy to further his ugly side. (maybe hes all ugly)
You are wrong Jo90. Honour the Maunga is a grassroots community group that has no affiliation with any organization.
Our mission is to save 345 healthy mature trees from destruction on Owairaka Mt Albert. In doing so we hope to help around 2500 from being felled across the city's maunga
Don't pay too much mind to all the ludicrous Woke moral posturing, Anna, … a small cadre of dogmatists here, along with their highly opportunistic fellow-travellers (who possess a consummate instinct for detecting where power & future self-interest lie) have important (& highly performative) Heroic White Saviour work to do …
… there'll be no ostentatious virtue-signaling (& hence, no elite in-group prestige-enhancement) to be had without fabricating yet another batch of "white supremacist" enemies out of thin air … then framing the issue – with wild-eyed dishonesty – as a "racist" attack on eternally virtuous & victimised (yet suprisingly assertive & authoritarian) Iwi Authorities.
Putting aside, of course, the fact that the TMA actually includes non-Māori city council reps … unfortunately, that’s a little too inconvenient for their “Ahhh, this is just Colonisation all over again !!!” narrative.
We aren't 'loons' Joe. We are a group of people who don't think it's a good idea to chop down thousands of mature trees on reserves across Tāmaki, whether they be native or non native.
Apart from the fact grafitti is not our style – do you really think Honour the Maunga would be stupid enough to do grafitti right by what was our occupation site at the time? Puh-lese!
Interestingly, police and grafitti removal contractors told us a number of things about this grafitti was odd – not your normal protest type grafitti. Make of that what you will.
Puritan Witchfinder-Generals don't need evidence … their wild smears, baseless accusations & character assassination (from an absurdly presumed 'moral high-ground') should be more than enough.
Any critic of the policies pursued by any powerful Iwi-led organisation – no matter how controversial or unpopular those policies – would appear to be a deadly enemy of Joe’s.
Which, I think, just goes to show what ‘unusually-refined moral sensibilities’ he possesses.
Cutting down trees at this point in the climate age is utterly bonkers unless you have a bloody good reason (and yes, we do it far too much for development and it blows my mind that few people seem to be bothered by this). I don't think replacing with natives usually is if the tree being removed is fully grown and it's going to take 30 or more years to replace it, especially as usually the natives can be planted alongside the exotics and then the exotics taken out later. We still have a slash and burn mentality in NZ, even among the nativists.
will also add that in addition to casual, unconscious or outright racism, often people have strong attachments to trees. If someone were cutting down the half century old trees in my neighbourhood and I wouldn't see trees that old again there before I die, I'd be upset too.
They appear to be removing exotics for the sake of it 🙁
Ratepayer-funded Tūpuna Maunga Authority intends to fell around 2500 mature exotic trees across Auckland’s volcanic cones (maunga), including 345 at Ōwairaka /Mt Albert. Destroying nearly half of this maunga’s tree cover in a five week period will do great harm to this Special Ecological Area
That shows that very few of the 13,000 plants are actually 'trees'. One of the concerns of the local community is the loss of habitat for Ōwairaka's thriving native bird life.
Except the planting plans for Ōwairaka show the 13,000 natives are mostly low growing species such as grasses, flaxes and shrubs. The new plantings you see around the archery field and domain gates represent nearly half the intended amount. There is no intention to cloak the maunga in forest. The intention is for largely bare looking maunga with mostly low plantings on the lower slopes.
The replacement 13,000 proposed are not trees, they have proven to be flaxes, cabbage trees and low lying shrubs. Where these have been planted most have struggled to survive and many are being strangled by kikuyu grass (which, as you know, isn't a native).
Similar experience onMāngere Mountain. The TMA planted in plastic pots placed on top of the ground. Between the kikuyu, the sparse soil structure and hostile climatic conditions, they had the same issues.
I grew up in Mt. Albert. Owairaka was my playground. I played under those trees and walked among them as an adult. They are beautiful and hold special memories for a great many people. I presume they were planted in the late 1800s or early 1900s. To cut trees like that down is a sacrilege.
Owairaka has many open spaces, grassy knolls and slopes. There is ample room for both native and exotic trees. I can accept sacrificing some of the lesser exotics but a wholesale removal of historic trees is arrogant and insulting. It smacks in my view of reverse racism because they were likely planted by Pakeha.
I'm not talking about carbon, I'm talking about life and whole systems ecology.
I shouldn't need to come up there, and I'm sure there are lots of beautiful plantings being done. But if that website is correct, there are gratuitous fellings going on as well. NZ has a subculture of nativists who will remove exotics just because they believe they are wrong, and in some cases because they hate them. This is anti-nature.
it still takes 50 years to replace a 50 year old tree. The only way I can understand this is to think that most people still don't believe the climate crisis is here now.
Probably you need to search a bit further than the prime advocacy site.
If you go up to the Ranger Station on Auckland's Scenic Drive you can see a photo from the 1920s of the hills before the whole conservation effort got going.
Pasture and burnt stumps as far as the eye can see.
100 years later, solid native forest. Suburbanisation stopped. Weeds and non-natives at a standstill though not perfect. Everyone in on it.
The only city in the world to situate right next to its own subtropical forest. Much of it in replanting, all of it native.
Same around the Hunuas.
You can always fill a hall with people trying to stop something. But you need an actual fight to fill a phonebooth with people prepared to plant.
One – do we trust Tangata Whenua to decide what should be planted on their land – which was returned to them under a Treaty settlement and to which they graciously allow the public to access, or do we not? The Maunga were returned to Iwi because they have historic and sacred importance. The whole of Maungawhau is wahi tapu for example.
Two – do we realise that these are weathered volcanic cones with difficult soil conditions and they are also sites full of archaeology? We disrespected them for decades by quarrying the basalt for building roads etc and we planted unsuitable vegetation like Australian gum trees on the steep slopes. We ran stock on them for decades and trampled the archaeology.
Iwi want to return the Maunga to their traditional planting. It is difficult to do this with a piecemeal approach as it is important to reduce the number of times heavy machinery will have to access the Maunga.
One – do we trust Tangata Whenua to decide what should be planted on their land – which was returned to them under a Treaty settlement and to which they graciously allow the public to access, or do we not?
There are a few things there: who has the right to decide? who has the right to protest? What knowledge bases are being used to make decisions?
When that other protest was happening last year or so in Auckland (sorry don't remember the name), I saw a *lot of people saying that we should trust the people managing the project because they were the experts. But the point is that the authorities have their own tech biases as well.
eg We know that most councils, DOC and native groups have seen gorse as the enemy. Those in the counter culture figured out how to work with gorse and grow native trees up through it. The first method is slash and burn, the latter is permaculture.
This should be compulsory viewing, but it needs to be understood in terms of systems not just mechanics.
My fervent hope though, is that manawhenua are involving others who have valid views, in the planning/decision-making. This is something Ngāi Tahu do well.
"One – do we trust Tangata Whenua to decide what should be planted on their land – which was returned to them under a Treaty settlement and to which they graciously allow the public to access, or do we not? The Maunga were returned to Iwi because they have historic and sacred importance. The whole of Maungawhau is wahi tapu for example."
I appreciate this line of questioning, and it challenged me when I first got involved. But then I learned that the Tūpuna Maunga Authority never actually consulted with mana whenua about the removal of the exotic trees. And it gets worse. The court action revealed that the idea to conduct a one-stage removal of all exotics across the maunga network was never discussed even by Authority members, and was never formally voted on by the Authority. That has caused huge division, and the result is wider community disaffection with the TMA from both Maori and non-Maori.
"Pasture and burnt stumps as far as the eye can see."
The story of NZ, right?
I'm going to name explicitly here the need to step out of the binary. Native vs non-native. Planting vs stopping felling. There are other ways. eg plant and then remove the exotics. Treat the site as a whole ecosystem. I support native restoration. I don't support some of the ways that is being done.
Are the against group opposed to native restoration? Is there a missed opportunity to get them helping with the planting?
I suspect it's not a binary, weka. Those involved are likely to be balancing a number of factors. I'd like to hear why the group seeks to remove all exotic trees. Their answer may be finessed. Here's an example to consider:
Whitebait are threatened with extinction. Whitebaiting should be banned. Whitebaiting is a cultural harvest for manawhenua.
Kākāpō was also a cultural harvest for manawhenua, but we've banned that. Maybe we need to get closer to extinction of whitebait 🙁
Those involved are likely to be balancing a number of factors. I'd like to hear why the group seeks to remove all exotic trees. Their answer may be finessed
Completely agree. My comments are generalised because I'm at the other end of the country. But also informed by the previous protest in Auckland, which had a lot of progressives refusing to address the whole systems approach and instead being nativist and taking a 'the authorities know what they are doing' approach. As you said elsewhere, it's a hard conversation to make headway in.
I'm not finding anything on the TPA site that addresses the issues being raised by the protest. It's slick and structured like most higher authority sites, channeling the information and kaupapa they want.
The protest site content is damning, but I'd like to see a critique of that from people that know the area so I can understand any bias here too.
Mostly I’m just tired. Of the incessant resistance to working with nature, and the huge blind spot about climate and ecology. We say climate change is real, but we act as if it is not.
Hi Weka. Our group supports succession to fully native vegetation on the maunga, but question the environmentally destructive way the Authority plans to do it. Also, planting plans show the natives are going in different places to where most of the exotics currently are, so why not have the best of both worlds.
And yes, myself and others from our group have helped at planting days.
either we need trees and we should plant them for climate change and in this case all trees are good, shade providing, cool temperature providing beings, or we dont need trees they are not the important beings that this planets needs.
Again, every apple, pear, cherry tree, ever grape vine, every passionfruit vine, pretty much most of the berries, all are imported. shall we start ripping them out with gusto to replace them with natives?
Never mind the impact on local wild live and that includes birds. But then we can blame cats for the demise of birds. After all the native birds would never feast, nest, live in a non native tree.
And then there is the idiocy of ripping out a tree that can provide a good food source for the next thousand years. But i guess if we grow it then we don't buy it.
Again, every apple, pear, cherry tree, ever grape vine, every passionfruit vine, pretty much most of the berries, all are imported. shall we start ripping them out with gusto to replace them with natives?
as a side bar, this is how fucking insane humans are currently. In lower Central Otago they pulled out orchards and replaced them with dairy cows. Globalisation will kill us all.
Net is one of the great technologies. It was probably more important than stone tools, and it survives as a craft today in knitting (knitting uses reef knots, net uses sheet bends – but otherwise they are the same). But stone tools last the millenia, while crude fibres (and bamboo tools for that matter) do not.
I think though, that Maori whitebait nets were woven, not braided – very different things.
This conundrum/threat is one that I've been addressing since forever through my different writing/speaking forums (NZ Gardener, regional council, YouTube, here etc.)
You rightly describe the driver for the clearances as "slash and burn mentality", and it's not until a new approach to landscape management becomes embedded in our thinking, will this change. Progress has been made, but it's painfully slow. I do believe, however, that a tipping-point will be reached as the balance is shifted through the various forums that promote and describe new ways to see the natural world. Until then we will have to endure stuff-ups such as this.
The page def has a lot of nice pictures of Native Birds. It would be great to actually hear more from anyone ACTUALLY involved ..on both.."sides". For more perspective.
I have been an active supporter of Honour the Maunga since November 2019. I'm not a regular here. I live on the slopes of Owairaka, and I fully support a transition to native planting, but over time. And yes I genuinely hope and believe there is common ground, because this is causing division across Tāmaki, not just in Mt Albert.
Oh,Hi, and thanks very much for replying on here ! And yes re the Common Ground. Surely ! As you say I would think it reasonable to transition over time. So no sudden hack down..but a careful replanting as you go…as happens in other parts of NZ and the World.
Is sad that some with different Agendas have tried to use this against. Nasty …
"The chair of the Tūpuna Maunga Authority has indicated a readiness to consider some compromise and I would urge the protest group, as I did in my correspondence to them several months ago, to enter into a direct discussion with the TMA and iwi owners in good faith to find a way through the current impasse."
""Authority representatives met with protest group representatives in January this year to ascertain if there was any common ground but nothing came of it," he said today."
That was in 2020, and the TMA ruled out any compromise. Since then they have simply refused to meet.
That was a quick weeding : ) No I wasnt really sure what you meant? Maybe you could let me..and others know which "Nativists" are keen on "slash/burning" . Just so I know who to avoid?
Not sure why you would want to avoid them. It's a mentality and belief system, not a plague.
Examples of slash and burn (as I used the term).
Removing exotic trees and leaving bare land, because exotics are wrong.
Seeing gorse as the enemy and spraying, or burning, to get rid of it, then having to battle regrowth from all the seeds in the soil, trying to plant trees in soil that's now been degraded from the fire or herbicide. Instead, use gorse as a nursery crop, take advantage of its nitrogen fixing powers as well as its protection from the elements and stock, plant into it, or use other techniques to get natives established. See the video I posted above.
Spraying wilding pines in some areas because they are 'bad' rather than seeing them as a resource that can be harvested, or as pioneers that can be used to help re-establish forest.
The amount of spray we use to beat back the non-natives instead of working with ecological processes to restore functional ecosystems.
1080/pindone-ing accessible areas instead of using hunters and harvesting possums and rabbits.
People hating pine trees because they're not native, and ignoring the fact that most of our houses are built from pines.
In NZ, in the context of this conversation, nativist means believing that native plants are good and exotics are bad. It's a belief system that supports removal of non-native vegetation even if it's not replaced with anything. It's the belief system that leads to chopping down trees simply because they are exotic (and this seems to be happening in the area Ad posted about).
You do know Tūpuna Maunga Authority's Chairman is a lawyer and property developer who a) represented the mining company fighting local iwi who were trying to protect the environment in the Taranaki iron sands case; b) represented the marina developers who destroyed korua blue penguin homes on Waiheke Island; c) represented interests fighting a couple who were trying to prevent a roading bypass from destroying virgin native forest.
Just because someone is Māori doesn't automatically mean they care about the environment or are automatically going to do a good job of looking after it. Just like just because someone is Pākeha does not mean they automatically want to exploit the environment, and know nothing about good environmental stewardship.
By the way, Tūpuna Maunga Authority did not consult anyone – not even the iwi it represents – before it destroyed hundreds of trees on Mangere, Maungarei and Ōhuirangi Pigeon Mountain. It still wouldn't be consulting anyone if legal action hadn't been taken.
ALL of them ? As I see ….there are some that are pretty interested in protecting our NZ Native Biodiversity from wilding Pines…up the Mountains. You and Weka should head up there sometime : )
I do. And I cull weed pine seedlings. Saving snow tussock..skinks,geckos,moths..and many others that would not survive in a pine …forest.
The skink, gecko, moth and snow tussock crowd are wonderful. The main protagonists in the wilding pines destruction programmes though, are tree-despising pro-agriculturalists though, yes?
Before control efforts pines were spreading about 90,000ha a year, and with control under way still cover about 5% of the landscape.
If left to spread on their own, the invasive pest plant was estimated to cover 20% of New Zealand's total land area — 5,400,000ha — by 2030, Ministry for Primary Industries wilding conifer control programme manager Sherman Smith said.
So if we did nothing, we'd have 20% of NZ reforested in the next decade (not quite, as the trees still need time to grow). But instead, we're going to spend a large amount of money, time and effort to beat back the bush and do what instead? Keep most of that land in pasture?
Here's another idea. Put major R&D resources into figuring out how to use the wilding pines at Mid Dome to establish a mixed forest. On the lower slopes, make that food forestry and/or agroforestry. Upper slopes can be hunting forestry.
Re mid- Dome accepting and using the trees that are there was always my view as a lowly PS back in the day. There was such vehement outpouring against the trees I asked a forester if they had some genetic impediment. Couldn't they be managed. No impediment, just classed as weeds so therefore not wanted.
The wilding pines at Mid Dome are contorta and it spreads very rapidly. NB both wilding pines and gorse if it is wanted to be removed respond to appropriate stocking pressure (using sheep) along the boundaries. This does not happen, cannot happen sometimes as the boundary has been placed in a poor place or the soil is too frail. If the tussock is to be encouraged to come back then the hard-ish stocking required to keep contorta at bay will also have an adverse effect on tussock.
Huge continuing landuse conflicts can be foreseen. Not sure if the option of managing the forest that is left has been explored at all. This would remove the Pinus Contorta and Pinus Mugo and replant in something. The reason that Pinus species was planted at all was for erosion control purposes and we would be crazy to think that this risk of erosion has gone away because we don't like the species they planted to help control the erosion.
The spread of pines around Mt Cook and the Mackenzie Basin is at least as troubling though MB is now a more degraded landscape than it was when many were concerned about the spread of pines into beautiful tussock land.
The Germans as landuse managers seem to be able to work forestry, agriculture, etc together. At the very least soil & climate map with a large helping of climate change best practice should be the guides.
There's also the vertical range of introduced conifers in the South Island high country. Beech and totara go up to around 1000m, above that would be a tussock ecosystem.
Douglas Fir and Contorta will happily go up to 15 – 1700m, and European Larch will grow well over 2000m. So we'd end up with no tussock cover and conifer cover to the top of nearly all the southern high country if the wildings were left unchecked. This would be a dramatic and irreversible change to the ecosystem of the high country if left unchecked.
This has already occurred on the hills above Queenstown where conifers have spread up into what have always been tussock above remnant fingers of beach. The higher spread of conifers has been removed and lower areas are being removed as well and the intention is to replace these with beech and other non-invasive species.
Scratch a developer of the tiniest urban section and you will find a slasher/burner. Though they use machinery to prepare a suitable place for housing as they put up 12 units where there was formerly only one. I had a developer who demolished the house next door and in 'napalming' the garden and levelling the already level section pulled out vegetation and in doing so laid the fence to waste. To get the house bits out and the bulldozer in they 'trimmed' all the trees up the shared drive, including those from my side. The top soil that there was on this mainly sandy soil was smoothed out ie removed. Successive blows denuded the section as what was left was pure sand. Now the houses grow concrete and typical beachy weeds. The houses could have been built keeping many of the trees but 'nah'. Too hard.
I am keen on revegetating but done by annihilating every 'naughty' tree that is growing there is not a sensible way to do it. Gertude Stein and her comment 'a rose, is a rose is a rose' is way to look at it. A tree is a tree is a tree could be one way to look. I would start by removing threes like banksias and wattles and some gums. Some gums are special but many are not. Leave the unusual, the olive planation or large trees. Pocket plant. When trees start throwing down branches then remove and pocket plant. (gums are notorious for throwing down branches) But do it slowly and with the help of good arborists.
The 3-30-300 rule is what we should have in our cities.
So every home should see three trees at least from the windows, 30% of every neighbourhood should have tree canopy and every home should be 300m from every park or green space. Trees and green space are the lungs of the city.
We honour the desire to move to native but do not be silly about it. So saving every last tree, no matter what its merits on Owairaka has no merit and neither does felling every tree no matter what its merits.
Again, “It didn’t take long to realise we had unwittingly walked into an intersection of complex and highly nuanced issues that drive to the core of our society”.
Many weeds are quick-turnover transitional entities. Once their work is done, they disappear. When we intervene, we can thwart that process and force an eventual replay of events. Learning how to use that phenomenon can often save everyone a lot of anguish.
Oh dear – the lazy resort to calling people you disagree with racist.
Perhaps they just have a connection to the grand old trees and don't want them to go.
"What we ask for
Best practice is for succession to fully native vegetation to be carried out over decades – just as would happen in nature – so that the native plantings are supported by the existing, mature forest.
We are therefore asking for a phased transition to fully native vegetation that takes account of each tree’s natural life. Only fell a tree if an independent arboriculture expert makes a strong case based on internationally-recognised best practice.
We also respectfully ask Tūpuna Maunga Authority and Auckland Council to engage with us with integrity, in the spirit of positive partnership, to protect Ōwairaka and her life-forms.
“A living tree is a signpost for a habitable planet.”
Oh dear – the lazy resort to calling people you disagree with racist.
It's complex. We've already seen with the anti-mandate protests that groups can be a real mix of people, and that this can include racism in various ways. See Joe's comment and follow the trail,
They removed a stand of dangerous, leggy, brittle pine from the southern cliff face by helicopter a year or two ago. There's a small amount of rubbish left over because it's very steep. This and the cost has been used by honourthemaunga as evidence of destruction and waste but the simple truth is mountain looks much better and is safer.
They also put the gates in and have recently redone the steps to summit, both improvements. Last thing they did was put screw in judder bars on the road both sides. This I hate because I'm a cyclist and use this mountain for exercise, but I understand why it was done (pedestrian safety) and I'll get used to it.
That is it. The same people complained about the removal of a collection of crumbling Monteray Pine trees from Western Springs Park. The trees were actively dangerous and the falling branches required the closure of the tracks on that area of the Park. They held up the process for so long that it was not possible to helicopter the trees out because they had become so fragile so clear felling was the only option. The trees are now gone, the replanting has been done and the vegetation is regrowing. They are still complaining about it.
Those pines weren't 'crumbling'. The Council's own survey showed virtually all of the 200 trees were safe. And they were providing canopy to a thriving native understorey. Council spent close to $2m and destroyed the lot. They spent $2m destroying around 15,000 native plants, and then replanted far less. Crazy.
It appears that the council claims the trees were not in good health. Others disagree. Steve Abel (April 2021)
A few years ago, on the pretext of safety, it was determined that every last one of the pines must be felled. This has been strongly contested. Chris Benton is the only arboricultural expert to study and make an industry-standard safety assessment of each and every one (in 2019) of the 200 pines. Benton is scathing of the council’s conclusion to fell them. He cites only three pines that need to be removed and a further six that require urgent pruning or some other management. Another respected arborist, Craig Webb, peer reviewed the Benton report and assessed that “the vast majority of pine trees in the forest pose a low or very low risk of harm” and all trees were within what is considered “tolerable” risk. Even the most recent council-commissioned arboricultural risk report suggests that only 26% of the trees need some degree of management for safety.
I’m not an arborist but those felled trees in those photos look pretty rotten to the core to me. My questions are in how bad a condition were those trees really, how long would the other seemingly heathy trees stayed healthy, and how much was and could have known about this before the actual felling. Sometimes you don’t know how bad things are until you open up the patient.
I count one tree with significant rotting, and four others with varying degrees of what is presumably a rotting process. Or maybe this is what old Monterey pines look like inside. Who knows. Arborists do and will have a range of opinions on them. The council could publish their expert assessment reports instead of just doing PR on their blog.
Somewhere in the middle no doubt is the truth. At the moment we have the council saying they all had to go because they were dangerous, and treehuggers saying there were a few that needed to be removed for safety.
I have not and will not go that far, as I’m trying to do other things this morning, so far with little success…
AFAIK, rot is not reversible but can be stopped or slowed down. At some stage a decision has to be made to put the axe to it and re-plant new trees, I’d imagine, unless one waits for Mother Nature, which could be risky and unpredictable.
AFAIK, rot is not reversible but can be stopped or slowed down. At some stage a decision has to be made to put the axe to it and re-plant new trees, I’d imagine, unless one waits for Mother Nature, which could be risky and unpredictable.
my guess is that the council made a pragmatic decision based on a range of factors including budget.
Still don't like the whole PR spin (for some reason I still have some hope for better democracy including at the local body level).
Spin and counter-spin seem to be happening more and more on all levels and at all layers of society and public discourse. For that reason, I cannot take anything said, claimed, and asserted here on TS by commenters at face value without reasonable argument and supporting evidence. That said, decisions need to be made, on a daily basis, and these are delegated to authorities that have to be transparent and accountable (for that exact reason) – they do not have to be omniscient and infallible.
What annoys me is that we have all this money and time being spent on assessments and reports, and we have the internet. Why not put up a website explaining it all, telling the truth, giving the information to the public alongside neutral interpretations of that, keep local communities informed and engaged.
Well, I can see two sides to that: 1) keep the people informed; 2) keep the people involved. The involvement can comprise anything available in a democratic society all the way to Parliament or the Supreme Court. There has to be a balance, which is [achieved by] controlling the information flow and thus the level of ‘citizen’ involvement & engagement. In other words, what we call spin is a necessary evil that is both the balance as well as the thing that needs to be balanced, if that makes any sense.
That's the Council commissioned report by Andrew Benson that (I assume) Steve Abel refers to.
The Chris Benton report was a full 'tree by tree' assessment, and found that "94% of the pine trees are stable (low-medium risk) and
pose no more risk than trees growing within any normal forest." (I have a PDF version, but no link, sorry).
"Why not put up a website explaining it all, telling the truth, giving the information to the public alongside neutral interpretations of that, keep local communities informed and engaged."
Well that depends on your motivation. It soon became clear to me that the removal of the pines at WS Forest was nothing to do with ecology and everything to do with ideology. You used a term 'nativism' in the dialogue yesterday. This is real problem in Auckland at the moment. It is unlikely that the community would accept the idea of removing even a small stand of pine trees at around $2m simply because they are pines. But label them 'dangerous', say you'll plant thousands of natives, and ignore the fact that you'll be destroying a native understorey of close to 15,000 plants, and bobs your uncle.
I was the lead submitter on the Council's resource consent application for WSF clearance.
Truth is this was a Treescape promoted clearance ( x Treescape arborist did the report demonstrating most of the trees were not falling down but he is know to dislike pines) but he concluded that all the trees should go in one clearance. He only ever surveyed the pines when this was a mixed forest. Back up support was supplied by Greenscene Council's go to company to get the report they want to get rid of trees ( Big Mac)
Treescape were Council's preferred contractor at that stage and x Treescape employees were in charge of the management of the Forest. Do you get the picture yet?
The numbers of healthy trees were always the side issue to keep people arguing as Incognito has demonstrated. And to waste money on reports, jobs for the boys!
Let us remember originally there were 700 pine trees and by the time Treescape targeted Western Springs for their clearfelling clearance big idea and big payoff methodology there were less than 200 left ( they had naturally fallen or been maintained and absorbed by the Forest processes) but there was a closed canopy regenerating native forest underneath which Council REFUSED to survey. Many of the native trees were over 3 metres and protected trees which Council did not have a resource consent to remove.
Western Springs Forest Clearance was also supported by Pippa Coom cos she wanted to put a circular cycle track in the Forest which would have destroyed the WSF Significant Ecological Area . CCF are currently installing Coom's cycle track
The Resource Consent Application made it clear Council and Coom were not telling the truth they only ever intended to restore the forest to park not a native forest. Hence the number of plants in the planting plan kept getting reduced now only 8000 odd ( mostly PB 5s) when there should have been 35,000 with some specimen trees.
The residents were harassed and bullied by CCF and the people of Auckland were very poorly served by Council on this project. Executive Heads should have rolled. But Rod Sheridan resigned just as the contract started! There are still a few more who should be held to account for this monumental waste of ratepayers money, well in excess of $2million closer to $3million by my estimation, with legals.
The report is a risk analysis. The classification 'not tolerable' does not necessarily mean unsafe, it simply means there is a risk associated with that tree that is not currently tolerable. That could mean a large branch needs removing or, as the author points out, "restricting access to some or all of the forest because of future risk uncertainties and will almost certainly require that the trees be managed until they reach their ultimate demise"
If the Local Board wish to preserve the pine forest, then the risks to the public need to be managed in a meaningful way. This will undoubtably [sic] involve removing [51] trees which produce ‘Not Tolerable’ or ‘Not Acceptable’ risks …
Yes but in what time frame? Immediately? Next week? Chris Benton's opinion was that "94% of the pine trees are stable (low-medium risk) and pose no more risk than trees growing within any normal forest." But even accepting the Benson review, why destroy a thriving urban native forest to plant another one?
I have not seen Benton’s opinion, so I cannot comment and I cannot take your word for it, at this stage.
The forest was not thriving at all!!
From the Benson report:
6: Conclusions
There are 198 standing pine trees (excluding poles) remaining in the Western Springs Forest. In biological terms, the general condition of the trees is sub-optimal, and because of their underlying physiology and known limitations to growth, are now chronically predisposed to further decline, with the most vulnerable trees being those which have less than 50% of their live crowns remaining (29% of the population). The trees are also predisposed to future failure events (trunk snapping) because of biomechanical features (e.g. high H:D) which cannot be rectified at this stage in the life of the trees. Future tree failures are expected to continue.
Since the pines were exotic pines it logically follows that the forest cannot be a native forest. Are you gaslighting?
I see that you have not retracted your nonsensical assertion of “a thriving urban native forest” [my italics]
One of the two options presented by Benson in his report to Auckland Council was:
… after considering all factors, and the advice of other specialists (ecology and forestry), the most pragmatic and economic way forward would be to remove all the pine trees in a single operation.
Chris Benton's report was the only tree by tree assessment done of all the pines.
The other expert reports were visual tree assessment methodology. As the name suggests it takes less time and the original x Treescape arborist became infamous for his reference to "eyeballing" the pines from a distance.
Tree by tree assessment is more robust and took over a week to complete.
The other assessments were commissioned by AC executive team to get their most expensive solution over the line.
It was always obvious that managing the trees down over time would be the best solution and the most cost effective.
The sad state of "expert" reports industry today is you can buy an expert for any outcome you wish and this happens on a daily basis in the Resource Consent industry.
Relying solely on the " experts" in a situation as complex as the WSF clearance without background information will not get you to the facts.
With respect, you're confusing the native forest with the Pine forest. My comment was "why destroy a thriving urban native forest to plant another one?"
The pines were close to 100 years old. My concern was not managing them out, it was doing so in a thoroughly irresponsible way that destroyed the thriving native forest underneath them.
Righteo, we were talking about the pines in a forest that is referred to in the Benson report as “forest” and “pine forest” and then you switch to a different issue and expect others to read your mind and take the same mental leap!?
"Righteo, we were talking about the pines in a forest that is referred to in the Benson report as “forest” and “pine forest” and then you switch to a different issue and expect others to read your mind and take the same mental leap!?"
You would have followed it quite easily if you had been following the thread or if you had any prior knowledge of the issue.. The native forest has been mentioned here several times.
Sure, you’ve mentioned many things. The core issue was the pine forest, which was in a poor state. Your comments are not conducive to forming an informed opinion on the matter aka you’re all over the place. Auckland Council decided that it was best to remove the pine forest in one single operation based on expert opinion. Until I see any other reliable fact and expert opinion that seems a fairly sound decision to me, as a fairly neutral (read: objective) observer who does not live in that particular backyard.
That report painted a rather negative picture of the pine forest and the state it was in. This seems to be confirmed after the felling, e.g., as seen it the photos in that ‘propaganda’ piece. Of course, it is fairly easy (and lazy) to stick that label on it because you don’t like the message and/or because you disagree with it – both seem to apply to you.
The photo's in the propaganda piece showed a small number of trees out of a stand of just under 200. They were cherry picked to suit that propaganda, and even then unless you are an expert in assessing photo's of trees, they don't say much.
I’ve already said that I’m not an arborist and neither are you, by the sounds of it.
I look at the photos, see rot and holes (some rather large), and read the accompanying text and it makes for a rather different story than the one you have been spinning here. The Benson report did also mention the poor health of quite a number of trees before the felling and presumably those were among the ones that we can see for ourselves in those photos taken after the felling.
You are relying on the text in an Auckland Council propaganda piece and photo's of a handful of trees. I'm relying to the opinions of expert arboriculturalists Chris Benton and Craig Webb.
Your wheels are spinning fast. You omit that I also rely on the Benson report to which you so kindly linked. It was a very interesting read, thank you so much!
Is this the same Benson we’re talking about:
Andrew Benson. Ph.D., BSc, FdSc Urban tree ecophysiologist
Sounds like he is an “expert arboriculturalist”, wouldn’t you agree?
"Sounds like he is an “expert arboriculturalist”, wouldn’t you agree?"
Absolutely. So let's accept his worst case scenario that 25 needed to be removed. And let's accept that they need to removed now (which he didn't say, but indulge me). Even accepting all of that, then a developing native forest of an estimated 15,000 plants was destroyed to make way for planting several thousand less when there was at least one alternative. Stupid.
Your strawmen hypotheticals are not useful; we need facts and expert opinion, both of which are in short supply. We do, however, have no shortage of opinion pieces, some of which you prefer to label as propaganda. You have already declared your agenda in this context, which is appreciated, but my agenda is to come to a mutually agreed discernible truth through robust debate here on TS.
I have not seen the Benton opinion piece. The Benson report looks solid with references to previous information, which can be tracked and verified. This makes it the most reliable source of information for me, at present.
"Your strawmen hypotheticals are not useful; we need facts and expert opinion, both of which are in short supply. "
I have provided facts and expert opinion. I’ve also provided you with access to the Benton report. It’s now up to you to go and read it. In the meantime, it seems clear you were not aware there was a native forest under the pine trees. I hope that extra information may help you to understand why I am arguing my point.
Edit: sorry just found this:
“From my assessment, I have formed an opinion that the vast majority of pine trees in the forest pose a
low or very low risk of harm. This is primarily due to the absence of actual targets, or the very
infrequent occupancy rates.” That’s from the peer review of the Bento report, conducted by Craig Webb., Let me know your email address and I’ll send the original, then you’ll have two expert reports to read.
You did not provide me with anything but your reckons and one link to a report by an expert who assessed the health of the pine forest as poor and deteriorating and who offered basically two scenarios for Auckland Council to consider. Auckland Council decided on one, which you don’t like. BTW, the Benson report focussed on the pine forest.
"You did not provide me with anything but your reckons and one link to a report by an expert who assessed the health of the pine forest as poor and deteriorating and who offered basically two scenarios for Auckland Council to consider."
Rubbish. The report found that 74% of the pines were of acceptable or tolerable risk. You haven't read the other two reports, but you're satisfied with photo's of a handful of trees. I'll leave it others to decide whose more credible.
There’s only one expert report publically available: the Benson report. This was commissioned in 2020 and I have read it, as it is the only one available to me. The so-called Chris Benton opinion was made in 2019. Neither this not the alleged review by Craig Webb are available to the public and the readers of this site. You want us/me to take your word for it and trust you and then, on top of that, agree with you, obviously??
Why did Andrew Benson not refer once to the opinion by Benton and review by Webb? Did he also not have access to it? Did he know of it? It just doesn’t make sense for Benson to leave this out of his apparently comprehensive section on previous information, IMO.
"This was commissioned in 2020 and I have read it, as it is the only one available to me. "
That's lazy. I told you I emailed the Chris Benton report to The Standard, so you could easily access it. I've also provided a link to a piece by Steve Abel, and there have been comments here by others involved with WSF. The truth is out there.
I told you I emailed the Chris Benton report to The Standard, so you could easily access it.
Wrong. I have no access to it, as I have no access to the site’s e-mail. Other readers of the site don’t have either. You’re making lazy assumptions. Steve Abel is someone who I could trust on this topic, but he also refers to [the] unavailable reports. Your interpretation of the Benson report was severely wanting – I won’t comment on other commenters here.
I've emailed Weka the Benton report and the Webb peer review. When he/she posts them, you will have access to balance what you already have. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this from Chris Benton's report:
Other professional arborist observations of the Forest and Stand
24. I have observed, out of professional interest, the Forest and Stand nearly every day (except for rain days), seven days a week for approximately 17 years as I have walked in the forest every day (where possible) during that time. I have taken it upon
myself to enter and observe the forest immediately following large storm events to observed any trees that may have fallen or been damaged. These observations have allowed me to form clear opinions on the reasons why trees within the stand have failed. Those visits meant that I have been able to observe failure redispositions before and after failure has occurred. This puts me in a unique position to review the status of the Stand vis-à-vis deterioration. While a great deal of observable deterioration within the Forest and Stand is unconcerning as it appears natural. I have been concerned with what I consider to be unnecessary tree works and unsupportable tree removals over the last 10 years or so.
It appears so, thank you (and no thanks to that other commenter who’s not been forthcoming with a link). I’ve got other things piling up now, but will read it later, with considerable interest.
tbf, this applies the other way too. We have conflicting reports and conflicting positions. I'm not seeing a good reason to trust the council just because they're the council.
Andrew Benson prepared a report for Maureen Glassey Auckland Council in October 2020 – I don’t know who the Reviewer (Sean McBride) is/was. The report looks solid to me, not being an expert in the field [no pun], and it appears to be consistent with that Council piece I linked to. I have not seen any other independent expert opinion.
To be fair, the reports are only conflicting by degrees. Both agree that a significant majority of the pines could remain. So let's accept the worst case scenario that 25 needed to be removed. Even accepting that (and I don't for reasons outlined in Steve Abel's article), then a developing native forest of an estimated 15,000 plants was destroyed to make way for planting several thousand less. It's madness.
This article by Steve Abel is a good explanation of what happened at WSF. He describes the wanton destruction of the native understorey, and also provides information on a 'Plan B' the community proposed that was rejected by Council.
Between the comment you were confused by, and you're realisation that there was a native forest at WS, there were a total of 9 other comments about the native forest.
Your comments are not conducive to forming an informed opinion on the matter aka you’re all over the place.
You will believe that, because you have no knowledge of the site, and no desire to learn anything about it.
Auckland Council decided that it was best to remove the pine forest in one single operation based on expert opinion.
You've only read on 'expert opinion', and that found that 74% of the pines could remain in place.
Until I see any other reliable fact and expert opinion that seems a fairly sound decision to me…
You've came in part way through a conversation, formed an opinion without understanding the physical dynamics of the site (you didn't even know there was a thriving native forest being destroyed) or bothering to read the variety of expert opinion available. That's just lazy, but it's typical of those who support this madness.
Personally I've found your comments interesting and informative. You and others have made excellent arguments for your position and provided a lot of resources to look at for those that are interested.
Sometimes conversations get confused once the the threads are long (hard to follow and see what people are referring to and what's already been said). I don't think you have to keep defending yourself here, lots of what you have shared is a good contribution to TS and I'm grateful for it.
You will believe that, because you have no knowledge of the site, and no desire to learn anything about it.
Wrong. I have read the report by Benson (2020).
You’ve only read on [sic] ‘expert opinion’, and that found that 74% of the pines could remain in place.
So, now the opinion by Benson is an ‘expert opinion’ after we agreed he’s or at least like an expert arboriculturalist!? Benson commented on the state of the pine forest, past, present, and future, and it was not good. The number of pine trees had gone down an average of 15 trees per year since 1988. You keep on ignoring that fact that does not suit you.
The Benson report was about the pine trees. The decision was about the pine trees and to remove them. No other expert opinions on the pine trees are available to me or to the other readers of this site. That’s neither madness nor laziness. If you want us to trust you then you’ll have to do better than that – your comments so far have not convinced me at all and they come across as biased.
yes but that’s all you’ve read. Other than a Council puff piece you naievely accept as gospel.
Wrong. I also read the opinion piece by Steve Abel. We already know what you think about article on the Council website with its inconvenient photos that to me appear to be consistent with the Benson report. That’s neither naïve belief nor gospel, but I see you have to resort to cheap & lazy labels again.
You do know that forests age, right? That trees don’t live forever? That they need managing?
Yup, and so did Benson and he knows a lot more about trees than you and I ever will. He suggested felling of all pine trees in one single operation to Auckland Council as one possible option. He was adamant that 51 trees needed to go regardless. That’s prudent advice, IMO.
In your case it is lazyness. [sic] You have access to other material. You can do better.
I have? I checked my inbox and it is not there. Why not? Because you did not send it to me but to The Standard, which is not me. Are you going to send it to all readers of this site? Why is not publically available in the first place, the Benson report is? People could have leaked the Benton & Webb documents …
"with its inconvenient photos that to me appear to be consistent with the Benson report. "
There it is again. The photo's are of a handful of trees, most of which show little or no deterioration.
"Yup, and so did Benson and he knows a lot more about trees than you and I ever will. He suggested felling of all pine trees in one single operation to Auckland Council as one possible option. He was adamant that 51 trees needed to go regardless. That’s prudent advice, IMO."
As one possible option. What he didn't suggest was destroying a thriving urban native forest in the process.
"I also read the opinion piece by Steve Abel. "
When? It must have been since your comments yesterday that showed you didn't know about the native understorey.
When? It must have been since your comments yesterday that showed you didn’t know about the native understorey.
You conflate absence of evidence and evidence of absence. The focus was on the pine trees and I stayed focussed on that. I failed to read your mind and make the same mental leap as you, which I’ve already acknowledged, which has got nothing to do with my knowledge of the undergrowth in the pine forest. Stop making lazy assumptions that are off the mark by a long shot.
I was driving home alone Mt Wellington highway this afternoon looking at Maungarei and thought about the idea your group wants to transition to native slowly and that cutting crappy pine destroys what is underneath.
I can tell you what is underneath, gorse! Yet another import.
I'm no expert but I can also tell you with some confidence they is no way native regeneration would happen with that pine there. There is however a glimmer of hope natives will strike under the gorse now the pine has gone.
There was a thriving native forest growing under the pine canopy at Western Springs forest. It was destroyed by the removal of those pines, only to be replaced by half the number of plants, all at a cost to ratepayers of approaching $2m.
If you're referring to the maunga environments, there are no pines on Ōwairaka. But next time you're driving, drop by. You'll see native plants thriving under the exotic canopy across the maunga, all of which will likely be destroyed when those trees are removed.
The cost of this destruction is approaching $1m per mountain. $1m to destroy mature, healthy trees that are acting as canopy cover to young native plants, habitat for native bird life and a host of other life forms. It’s crazy.
I can tell you what is underneath, gorse! Yet another import.
I'm no expert but I can also tell you with some confidence they is no way native regeneration would happen with that pine there. There is however a glimmer of hope natives will strike under the gorse now the pine has gone.
Using gorse to regenerate native ecologies. It's not a glimmer, it's now proven strategy.
Please educate yourself. Even just read the comments in this conversation and follow the links. The idea that natives can't regenerate under pines comes from plantation pines. It's an erroneous idea. When pines are not in plantation, lots of other things will grow with them. I'm a few minutes drive from a pine and kanuka forest.
You can see more examples in this post and the comments under it,
In fact natives do grow in pine plantations and Kiwis can and do live in pine forests.
I have had conversations with a past president of the Forest Owners Ass who is a committed native forest regenerator about this. There is also a very good article about pine plantation myths which was published in NZ Geographic some years ago before the fundamentalist nativists took over and politicised NZ's environment with tree racism and obsession for demonizing habitat plants.
First question is always "what exactly are these plants doing? " Don't make assumptions and suspend your cultural beliefs, we all have them,
Nice story, will see if I can track down the NZG piece.
It's been so good to have all these new voices here in the past few days bring into the new perspectives. Completely agree about assumptions and cultural beliefs.
Well, I am talking about one particular stand of something pine on the steep side of a volcano, my volcano, Maungarei, which I use every day.
I'm well aware gorse provides nursery to other plants which is why I mentioned it. Perhaps that was part of the thinking when TMA commissioned the work done.
And I don't hate pine trees, their cones fill my fireplaces. Love a good oak tree too as long as I don't have to clean up after it.
Gorse is a potent nitrogen fixer, with root systems that stabilise soils. Where you see gorse, you see soil asking for repair.
You also seen a snapshot in time, where ‘imported’ plants are doing a powerful job in the here and now for the land. The work they do now prepares the soil to once again support her endemic species, oft displaced by dramatic changes created by humans.
Yes, Pine and Gorse are imported. But so are you and I. The first peoples of this land acknowledge and document their own sacred migration in their lore, and there is deep learning available in humbly listening to the histories of Tangata Whenua.
Hatred for particular species is rooted in a colonial mindset. This often manifests in Aotearoa as a ‘land management’ perspective. It has been my humble observation that for many of European descent, a rejection of non-native plant species is a form of internalised racism and apologism. The feelings behind this must be honored and taken seriously. There is pain here.
Unchecked, these emotion-driven attitudes lead to the justification of horrific destruction. The common thread between what happened at Western Springs, Canal Road and the three Maunga that had their non-native trees stripped was the death of thousands of natives – trees, saplings, birds, frogs, skinks, eel, insects, fungi are more. Without habitat, life ends.
It appears this mass ecocide was worth it so this city can visually virtue signal.
While it is inconvenient for our minds, biological exchange and the evolution of ecosystems is an ongoing reality across the globe. We can argue and polarise, or we can be in relationship to the land and learn from the repair work she is doing. If we truly want to support native biodiversity, the first place we need to work may well be within our own attitudes.
It has been my humble observation that for many of European descent, a rejection of non-native plant species is a form of internalised racism and apologism.
Oh really? Thats a pretty interesting statement. Im kinda glad you said it was only your "humble observation".
I'd hate to think you were promulgating it as more….
makes sense to me, although I see it more as Pākehā trying to find a way out of colonial guilt as well as rejection of our ancestors. To be clear, the point here is hatred of introduced species not love of natives. I've seen people direct hate at forests because they weren't native. That's nuts.
could be. I used to see it a lot in new age circles. It goes hand in hand with ideas about spiritual purity.
But as we talked about the other day, nativism is reasonably common in NZ and manifests as people that believe that non-natives should be removed, full stop. This is happening all over NZ. Is it happening in the projects you are involved with? Are non-natives being removed even if there's no immediate reason to?
Hi Weka. Thanks for clarify and I do think we are in the same Green Mindspace. Wouldnt want that to change…
Cant say I have ever been to near "New Agers" ( They maybe nice enough..but not really sure : )
Oh re Native/Non Native…I did say the other day…I like my Fruit trees, like Oaks, and other Beautiful trees. Not so keen on Sycamores…(as you'll know if from Dunedin)…and the Wilding creeping death (to snow tussock and its Biodiversity) on Qtowns Mountain tops..as Graeme and I linked…And the Lombardy Polars.
Anyway…I gotta do stuff. I always read you and Roberts ..and DB Browns comments Re Permaculture with interest.
When you come back let's have a conversation about the forest on the edge of the town belt in the Leith Valley. Sycamores grow there among the natives. Should they be removed? When? How?
Nativists would say they should all be taken out now. Permaculturists and regenerators would say, what role are the sycamores playing currently? What are the impacts of removal en masse? Impacts of selective logging? Impacts of doing nothing? What other options are available?
Is it possible to create a fully native ecosystem in that place given the number of seeding sycamores in the area? Does it matter if it is a mixed forest? Can we create a fully native ecosystem in another place and leave this existing forest to get on with its business?
That surprises me. I can say it's rife in Auckland. At the Waitematā Local Board meeting that finally decided to remove the pines at Western Springs Forest, one local board member (who has British parentage) explained that her reason for voting to remove the pines was her own guilt about colonisation. It seemed a very strange reason to vote to destroy a native understory containing more plants than have been subsequently replanted.
I spoke to this below. I've had a lot of long conversations over the last three years with NZers of European descent about this and how it feels to them. There are a lot of people who feel that they have to reject non-natives, and it is an extension of self-rejection.
Personally, I would not assume to know what any other individual feels, but I do feel a responsibility to bring into the conversation psychological factors that are at play societally.
Its important to hear ofcourse, that that is not true for you, because that is valid as well.
"Nativists would say they should all be taken out now"
They might not 🙂
Nativists might also be willing to play the long game, using sycamore as an "interim state" tree that can ensure the success of their eventual aim for 100% native. It's easy to ascribe thoughtlessness to the "others" 🙂
These ideas are very complex. Imagine if the "exotic" was a possum.
My feeling is that most problems don't have definitive answers; the genie is out of the bottle and from here on, we scramble to find the best of a bad bunch solution, and even that will be constantly subject to change.
I'm also not so sure that "colonial guilt" is a useful model to use. I expect that at a deeper level, people are confused/disturbed/guilt-ridden as the result of a wider cultural disconnection from our earliest ancestors who didn't kill without thinking and were much more finely tuned to other living things. As modern humans, we are complicit with so much destruction and brutalising of nature (driven on an earth-smothering road, lately?) that at a level we know we are brutes and can't easily be anything else.
My thoughts echo yours, SOWC. Part of the problem is the habit of instant gratification, which doesn't translate well when it comes to establishing forests. Succession; planting establishment crops then rolling forward with successional sowings/plantings etc. seems beyond the imagination of most people and it surely is something that has to be studied hard before the penny drops, for most people and certainly, organisations. In this instance, it sounds (from a great distance) as though several stages of forest establishment were already passed and the clearance will have set the process back to square one, so to speak. Disappointing. Despite the reference to colonialism, it seems to me that there are good learnings to be gleaned from very old European cultures that employed successional forest management practices. Maori may have, but the forests here are of a different nature to those elsewhere in the world, so employing certain techniques might not be traditional here. Coppicing, for example, may not have flourished here, as it did in Europe. Nor pollarding. Terrapreta. Seedballs. Nightsoil.
Personally, I blame agriculture for the mindset that destroys trees. And it's evil cousin, civilisation 🙂
Firstly, huge gratitude for centering European indigenous practices and land care. This is pivotal to understand. We all come from a memory of living close to the land. Every single one of us. The differences are related to time, and how long ago our families/tribes were separated from place.
The purpose in discussing colonization is connected deeply to the rationale presented early in the piece for the removal of trees off the Maunga. It was clearly presented as a decolonisation process.
To my mind and heart, the question naturally becomes ‘what is decolonisation’? Is there a way to do it with compassion, where everyone, including the living world has a seat at the table? Where wounds are treated according to need but nobody is vilified or left behind?
Yup. Agriculture/civilization etc. All create distance. There’s no going back, but here we stand at a pivotal time where our behaviours have caught up with us as a species.
The best possible outcome of a decolonial project would be to bring people together to care for the living world again. What is unfurling with the Maunga so far is antithetical, and the polarization in the community demonstrates this.
"Is there a way to do it with compassion, where everyone, including the living world has a seat at the table? Where wounds are treated according to need but nobody is vilified or left behind?"
Sounds like this is not an option in the present situation. That's not surprising, as there are complex streams, cultural, ideological, personal, racial etc. flowing this way and that.
Looking more widely (land use across Aotearoa/the wide world) a similar challenge simmers. Perhaps issues like the one here will serve a test-cases and we will be able to offer our findings/accomodations to the world; somebody has to keep at it till it's resolved.
To my mind, this is the essential work. It's very challenging and very interesting. And a lot is riding on us resolving it 🙂
you know better than this. If you want to argue they're wrong, then make the argument. If you want to do ad homs, then there's a limit on how much that will be tolerate.
I've seen enough of the Gulf island reserves to know what's possible so I support Tūpuna Maunga Authority plans to return Tāmaki Makaurau maunga to something like their pre-European state.
So AFAIC, there's no argument to be had with a pack of well heeled nimbys, or indeed the likes of Brash's mob nor the stetson wearing twit they seem to appeal to. A majority want maunga replanted so suck it up, kiddies.
And then along comes this fucking twit and her reckons about peoples motivations opposing said pack of well heeled nimbys.
"I've seen enough of the Gulf island reserves to know what's possible so I support Tūpuna Maunga Authority plans to return Tāmaki Makaurau maunga to something like their pre-European state."
You're buying into a series of myths.
To return to a "pre-European state", Ōwairaka, to take just one maunga, would need to be stripped of all of it's trees, native and exotic. Is that what you support?
“A majority want maunga replanted”
Yes, so do we. There is no need to remove the exotics, they are either providing canopy cover, or are not in the same proximity to the proposed plantings.
” there’s no argument to be had…”
However you characterise people you disagree with, you’re not putting up any kind of coherent argument to support the removal of the trees, so in that sense, you are missing out on engagement.
The authority also retained advice from arbourists. It's not as if they came up with removing exotics first on their own. But the whole thing has become a flashpoint for anxieties about whose expertise counts.
"It's not as if they came up with removing exotics first on their own."
Actually, it's worse than that The decision was not made by the Authority, but by one individual without reference to either the Authority members or the wider public. I quote from the Court of Appeal judgement:
[[107] Mr Majurey’s evidence can be contrasted with that of Mr Christopher Parkinson, who was a member of the Tūpuna Maunga Authority from its inception to the end of 2019. Mr Parkinson at the relevant time was a board member of the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Reserves Board. He was appointed by the Council as a representative on the Tūpuna Maunga Authority for two three-year terms. In his affidavit, he noted that while the Tūpuna Maunga Authority had agreed the Annual Operational Plan, the documents comprising that plan did not contain any detail of the proposed removal of the trees. He said that he had attended all of the hui and prior workshops held by the Tūpuna Maunga Authority, aside from “a few absences” both during the formation of the IMP and after that. He said that to the best of his knowledge, there had been no discussion of the removal of all of the exotic trees on Ōwairaka at any of the hui or workshops in which he took part.
[98] There is no written record of the decision to remove the 345 exotic trees from Ōwairaka, nor to do so over a short period of time. The Judge found that the decision was made at some time in the period of 9 August to 11 October 2018, and was made by Mr Turoa on behalf of the Tūpuna Maunga Authority.
I am not aware of any single arboricultural expert who supports the single stage removal of the exotics on ecological or environmental grounds.
it’s a requirement of this site to provide a link when copy and pasting (or an explicit citation if the quote is not online). This is for a range of reasons related to keeping debate robust eg people may want to see context. Can you please supply the link now.
The authority also retained advice from arbourists. It's not as if they came up with removing exotics first on their own. But the whole thing has become a flashpoint for anxieties about whose expertise counts.
Farmers retain advice from experts and our rivers are dying.
yes a flash point. With a fair amount of denialism from some progressives.
Its not immediately clear who the twit is in your commentary, but on the off chance its me I'll respond here.
My suppositions on internalized racism and the transference of that onto non-native plants come from many heartfelt conversations over the last three years with New Zealanders of European descent. It takes a lot for them to be vulnerable to the degree required to face such deep conditioning. Consistently, they share that how they feel about non-native plants is an extension of how they feel they ought to about themselves. This isn't something to take lightly, or mock.
In referring to people as 'kiddos', 'nimbys' and suggesting people must 'suck up' anything if it is not their choice to do so, I am hearing a defensiveness and aggression.
It is possible for us to disagree. I respect your choice to support the TMA. I am not asking for the same in return. However, I also don't believe I or anyone else needs to tolerate being ridiculed for their stance or belief.
Last time I removed an exotic (not counting this time turning privet into a food forest) it was a large sweetgum with heart-rot. It endangered my greenhouse and neighbours house so it had to go.
I used the logs to make garden surrounds, to landscape slopes, and to grow fungi. I used the mulch to fill in the garden surrounds, and I planted herbs, spices, flowers, vegetables and other trees in them (lemon, lime, lemonade, olive, feijoa, cherry guava, titoki, kowhai…) using mostly just the resources of the one 'fallen' tree (some cardboard, manure, rockdust and a bit of lime – certainly helps).
Western Springs was imbecilic. I weed pines and gorse at times when up there because, surprise surprise, they are popping up in the gaps as they do, but! – not in the bush. Unfortunately, they removed a large chunk of the bush and there's a massive gap. A team of arborists could have done a significantly better job than those forestry types. But now it is locals weeding and long may that continue before council turn up with more bloody cides.
There seems to be a lot more doers than thinkers involved in many of these projects. The eagerness to be seen to be doing something overriding the need to be doing it right. The machines turn up, the chemicals, it's all over rover.
But what is right or wrong with trees?
Natives can take care of themselves and local wildlife, in turn taking care of us for relatively little input (via ecosystem services of flood and drought mitigation, pollination, air cleaning, oxygen provision, cooling, pollutant reduction, seed provision, fuel, fibre, food…). Exotics that aren't spreading – who cares really, nice to have the diversity. Exotics that are invasive… they'll cost a fortune and wipe out diversity. So define the exotics.
Keeping rampant exotics in check can be hugely demanding in time and resources. Fine for me where I can steward the land, coppicing and growing logs, poles, fuel… from privet. But taking on wilding pines now, not tolerating or trying to just check them, could stop a huge amount of problems down the line (wildfires for a start). As for other trees…
What trees? Exotics don't belong in native bush, but trying to knock exotics out of Auckland parks seems a bit daft, unless they're problematic – unless they're bloody Tory trees or something!
If they got to drop them, turn them into fertile ground for natives.
Todays protests all get counter-protestors. It's a wonder we get anything done. Everyone screaming to do it right, no left, no!!!
What is right? And what is left after all the fighting?
One would hope common sense.
If invasive – stop it reproducing or remove it. If not invasive and not endangering anything, leave it be or at least utilise it. My 3c (inflation).
You are lucky your neighbors don't complain about the privet. From memory you are in Auckland and i am not sure about the rules there, but Northland Regional Council has a bylaw about privet in that it must be removed if within 50m of a dwelling of someone who's health is affected. And also within 10m of a property where the occupier is trying to eradicate it.
Council rules on privet. Ermmm. My house backs on to an entire forest of Ligustrum lucidum on council land – in mid city. Slowly it's being thinned and the natives under it, given the light gaps, are thriving. Other weeds have needed more constant control there, jasmine, tradescantia… to let the native nursery take place.
You kill them by leaving a trunk and pulling the suckers off every few months for up to 2 years. This requires attention to the land. It only needs minutes per tree but the landowner needs to be paying attention. Or you can use tons of poison and hope for the best. Poison mostly works but some regrow.
These trees generate a lot of fungi when you drop them without poisons. The fungi in turn build gorgeous topsoil. Coppiced, they make good garden poles in 1 year. Hot non-sparking firewood size in 2, fungi cultivation logs in 3. The flowers have medicine that modulates blood glucose. The berries feed birds – chooks love em but unfortunately that spreads them.
Not all privet are equal. I just dropped some 10m trees of the L lucidum. I've found many uses for it, much to the horror of others whom know two fifths of fuck all about it.
The problem is the solution. One day there will be no privet here as they will have provided the impetus and biomass to enable a thriving food forest (and adjacent native forest) in their wake.
And then they turn on the guy pointing out the absurdity of their argument that it’s okay Russia is retreating, because an American author and military commentator was there.
In the city of Izyum, liberated by the Ukrainian military during a large-scale counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region, a mass grave was discovered. According to the prosecutor of the region Oleksandr Filchakov, 445 graves of civilians were found – and another mass grave of Ukrainian servicemen. Some bodies testify to the use of torture. Exhumation work continues. Meduza shows the main photos of the 205th day of the war.
“We are aware of discussion on social media and in the media regarding Oakville Trafalgar High School. We would like to take this opportunity to reiterate to our community that we are committed to establishing and maintaining a safe, caring, inclusive, equitable and welcoming learning and working environment for all students and staff,” the email reads.
The school defers to the Ontario Human Rights Code, suggesting that any concerns about Lemieux would be akin to discrimination.
“We strive to promote a positive learning environment in schools consistent with the values of the HDSB and to ensure a safe and inclusive environment for all students, staff and the community, regardless of race, age, ability, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, cultural observance, socioeconomic circumstances or body type/size.”
The Teacher is brave, stunning and most marginalized and the students just have to suck on that huge transcock if they find this person not brave, stunning and most marginalized. Never mind the OSH problem. But this is Canada, and this is for whom Self ID was made. I can't wait for this to be here in our streets, schools, and just everywhere. So brave, so stunning and so so marginalized.
Also no one would ever think that this would not be a women, as no one would be able to tell without checking on their genitals.
I now await with a mixture of both anticipation and dread, the same defence of a woman teacher trotting around in a Flash Gordon outfit, with similarly exaggerated male genitalia.
Their hair is in their face, they are not wearing googles, their silicon tits are about to be sawed of. This person is a walking OSH case. Any back pain from their extra large silicon tits should not be accepted as a 'work place accident' after all they ordered, paid and strapped them on.
The kids though. No rights to say anything at all. Made part in this teachers affirmation fetish without consent, unless going to school now to receive an education is now consenting to participating in the teachers fetish of objectifying womanhood, and woman body parts.
Let's say that in another year's time 50% of the NZ population has had covid (2.5m). If the LC rate is 10% of infections (more likely higher than that), that's 250,000 people with ongoing symptoms. Let's say 25% of those are serious to the point where people can't work or can only work part time. That's 62,500 people that need health care and financial support as well as support with life tasks like childcare or cleaning their house.
Current SLP numbers are about 90,000 (long term people unable to work due to disability).
What I want to know is what is likely to be happening at year 5. Or year 10. If subsequent covid infections increase risk of LC, are we heading for most people eventually getting LC? What happens at the point that there are more people with LC unable to work than those able to keep society functioning? Or even running the health system? Mostly I want to know what is going on in people's minds that we aren't talking about this as a major crisis on the horizon.
I'm not going to dispute your numbers. They look fairly conservative to me.
I'm more than certain, we will never know the true figure of vaccine injuries though. We have to have a sincere intention to identity and record those, anId we still have a focus on denigrating those who did not get vaccinated.
I'm sure that there are conversations going on in various ways about both Long Covid, and vaccine injuries. The discussion however, is not being led or explored by our Ministry of Health, politicians or commentators.
As always, when health is compromised, those who suffer the most are unlikely to be in a position to advocate strongly.
I don't know what the answer is here. Perhaps getting in touch with the Ministry to indicate concern or send a OIA request.
I'm not impressed with their medical management on a few issues. The fact that they will drop the ball here as well, is expected rather than a surprise.
Those in power who ignore the impact, are doing the usual. Avoiding that which doesn't have a clear answer.
You do not have to go very far to find tens of thousands of people who have been vaccine injured one way or another – and I am one.
I don't know how many people have been vaccine injured, and as far as I know no-one does. Because we don't have robust processes for tracking this. Maybe it's tens of thousands globally, ranging from low level reactions to serious disability causing injuries to death. The latter being rare.
We did what we were assured was the right thing – and now we're being told to fuck off and not embarrass the Big Pharma establishment.
Not news to me or many others who were trying to talk about this from the start. The debate on TS when the vaccine was being developed split between those with high faith (vax reactions are very rare, trust the authorities) and those with strong feelings that vax is wrong and who denied the value of the vaccine. Missing was the idea that vaccines do cause damage but the overall damage is less than not vaccinating against covid, and what that means for the individuals vs the collective.
I've been trying to have these conversations on TS for a very long time, long before covid.
“I've been trying to have these conversations on TS for a very long time, long before Covid”
Taking any drug is a utilitarian calculation of risk. I have had unpleasant reactions to some anti-hypertensive drugs – but they have undoubtedly lowered my blood pressure. The reactions are not life-threatening, whereas a stroke or heart failure might be. So I take the risk – and fortunately the risk and reward are almost entirely private to me, apart from my responsibility to be here and keep supporting a narrow circle of immediate family.
An infectious disease widens that circle of responsibility to include everyone else in society, most of whom we've never met and never will. Getting vaccinated is an act of solidarity as well as self-interest. But the problem with utilitarian calculations at the whole-population level, is that harms and benefits are not equally distributed. There is no way round this dilemma – as anyone who has watched their own child being vaccinated will know. Sometimes faith is a useful habit.
Pragmatically I can't see how we could have managed without vaccinating against covid. There will be people harmed by this, but it will be considerably less than those harmed by covid and LC. There's also the flatten the curve issue and impact on the health system.
We could however have done better in looking after people who had averse reactions to the vaccine, and those who were affected by the mandate. And likewise, those who get LC. We are still really bad at this. See Molly's comment above as well.
True, although it irks when it's used by rationalists who then deny they are using it. I just wish people would be more honest about it because then we could account for it and get better at dealing with the downsides.
I just have a feeling that the impacts of getting Covid ie without a vaccine or even with it are spread over many more people than vaccine injury. The impact of Long Covid, even on the vaccinated is a whole different subject.
I know of only one person who has had vaccine injury and that is Redlogix. Many of us had sore arms and aches but these were fleeting, for some no worse than the annual flu injection.
Those of my friends and acquaintances who are still suffering from the after effects of having had Covid as vaccinated people are many more. What would it have been like had we not had the vaccine, many of us would be dead I think. I suspect this view is being played out/expressed all around the world. We may have had to accept a less than perfect result from the vaccine because this virus came upon us so quickly.
That's how I see it too. Which sucks for the individuals who have adverse reactions to the vaccine, and yes this is the price we are paying. Which is why I think we should be looking after those people and we just aren't.
Yes I agree. I know several people who would be classed as having long Covid, am suspecting I fall into this category. Constant tiredness and soreness on the soles of my feet that the Dr says may be neurological…..
One friend has newly acquired asthma, another has her Doctor wondering about hiatus hernia like symptoms or digestive symptoms that developed immediately after Covid. If all these things don't pass then there will be impacts on us and the health system and for those of us still in the workforce on our earning capacity and productiveness, then on the earning capacity and productiveness in all facets of life in our country.
All this and the future for those who were vaccine injured is lost among the BAU, prosperity churchers and silly anti mask enthusiasts.
I did not infer the study said the Pfizer product causes heart attacks.
The study found that the Pfizer shot can cause myocarditis, (possibly at a much higher rate than we were warned), and that there were measurable changes in the hearts (based on changes from a wide range of baseline readings) of many study participants.
[You have not responded to the original Mod note nor have you retracted it, but just repeated your misleading interpretation and extrapolation of a manuscript that has not been peer-reviewed yet and that is based on very small numbers, which you both deny and confirm. Your science illiteracy is compounded by your strong negative bias and your stubbornness – it is hard to escape the feeling that there’s an element of deliberation in your ambiguity and confusion.
You’ve had several chances and it is clear that you will simply repeat, rinse, repeat, ad nauseam, which is your MO here on a number of topics. Of course, after a ban you will continue this and I’ll continue moderating you for the same reasons and behaviour as I see fit, which is what you expected and thus what you’ll receive. TS readers deserve better than gaslighting from commenters. I’ll move you to Black List for a month – Incognito]
Incog will deal with your comment in Pending, but I did want to address this,
I did not infer the study said the Pfizer product causes heart attacks.
I don't think you did either, but the problem is your comment was ambiguous. All you have to do is acknowledge that the study didn't say that and clarify what you actually meant. Simply and without adding a whole bunch of other stuff. If you had done that at the time, you wouldn't be about to get a ban.
All that is happening here is you've been moderated and haven't responded and are about to get a ban because of that. If you want to avoid that, you can just do as I suggest and see if that works. I'm saying this because I want you to keep your commenting privileges here.
The study found that the Pfizer shot can cause myocarditis, (possibly at a much higher rate than we were warned)…
In the original thread we addressed a lot of this. The study had one person out of 300 who got pericarditis after vax. You claimed this meant that a 1 in 300 rate. It was explained to you why that is not true. You made a false claim based on low science literacy.
You've now changed your position to 'possibly', but you still need to provide evidence for that opinion if asked. And you are just bad at doing this. Usually you respond with a bunch of rhetoric like you just have, which is both a diversion and a sucking up of mod time.
The more you do that kind of thing (make false statements, refuse to provide clear evidence, double down with more rhetoric when asked for evidence), the less trustworthy your opinions become. All I'm saying is up your game, because those kinds of claims are not necessary and they're counter productive.
In terms of TS, both of the main mods are sick of having to pull people up on this. Some topics require a very robust level of evidence, and this is obviously one of them. I want the debate here to stay open and people be allowed to argue a range of positions, but there are limits.
We've had unintended legislative outcomes before. One was the bill that legalized prostitution. Though the intent seemed to be the freeing up the lives of women of slender means, a non-trivial result was making life much easier for pimps.
I never understood the intent of that bill. Negative outcomes were obvious.
I recall Chris Carter speaking about a study that had 68-80% of prostitutes reporting they required illegal drug use to get through the day. That didn't seem to give him pause for thought when advocating for the bill.
Decriminalising of prostitution stops punishing women who are largely doing sex work out of financial need. We could have decriminalised selling sex and criminalised buying sex though.
That's certainly a popular approach – I think Korea uses it, the effect is more to suppress some of the less desirable client behaviours, than to stamp it out.
I would have wanted a rule that only two forms of business were ok for prostitution though – self-employment, or cooperatives. No freeloading Terry Browns or Chow brothers motivated to grief or addict people to exploit.
The Nordic model (?) – that decriminalised the prostitutes, but retained laws against procurement or pimping was discussed at the time. The political will seemed to lie elsewhere.
(This topic is worthy of a specific post. There is a lot to it)
Well there was a section of the Labour party that was notoriously lacking judgment. It cost Clark dearly.
It's always been a complicated question, prostitution. It's no picnic for those obliged to resort to it, and it is often also exploitive of its customers. Recognizing it as vice is common in most societies, like gambling, which was also legalized in a similarly breathtaking act of irresponsibility around the same. So much for the decent society.
I imagine part of the motivation was the out of control neo-liberalism in Parliament, exercised through Winz, whose shriveled consciences could now pretend that going on the game was just like other forms of business.
I asked you two reasonable questions Mike. Nothing narky, I'm curious if you understand that this person isn't simply seeking attention but is probably acting out their sexual fetish in a school classroom.
I also wanted to know if you are ok with that, not because I'm being narky, but because a large chunk of the left does indeed support this. So much so that in Canada, the school won't do anything about the sexual transgression.
Is there any reason why overtly sexualised behaviour such as this wouldn't result in any teacher being removed from the classroom – no matter who they were? Such laws exist, and things like this shouldn't escape them.
The problem the school has is that it will be accused of transphobia if it does anything. Canada has some hefty laws around this too, so their hands may be tied.
Few people want to talk about AGP. If we can't name AGP, or fetish, then this is simply a trans woman expressing her identity and it's forbidden to challenge that. It would be a brave person to stand up and say this is something sexual and therefore contextually wrong.
*here I mean the ideology. Plenty of trans people getting caught up in this bullshit unfairly.
I read in Stuff that the government is going to change the rules for subdividing land to protect valuable horticultural land from being developed into housing – particularly around South Auckland.
Blanket rules that assume only one factor takes precedence often leads to unintended negative outcomes.
Soil classification is one consideration of many. Increase the weighting to reflect concern about productive land. Don't assume this is the only factor of merit.
As a founding member of Honour the Maunga, it feels important to respond to some of what has been raised here. Please excuse me as I haven’t read all the comments so will only address the ones that I have.
We have been dealing with accusations of racism from day one, despite our organisation being made up of people from many ethnic backgrounds, including Māori. I myself am indigenous on both sides, with tribal ancestry in the Middle East and Northern India that I can trace back thousands of years.
Given my own ancestors have dealt with the many damages of colonisation, had a treaty with the British and technically decolonized in 1971 by taking complete agency within their nation, what interest would I have in perpetuating Eurocentric norms? None.
However, I know through lived experience that life itself matters more than identify politics. My ancestral lands are damaged beyond recognition, entirely due to money making projects and intensification at the hands of my own people. So, I can’t turn a blind eye when I see this kind of damage to the Earth being perpetuated.
Our critics also fail to notice or mention that our organisation has been adopted via the process of uriwhanaunga into the Te Tawera hapu. This extended family bond is rooted in common concern. Te Tawera’s ancestor Wairaka’s footprints dwell upon this maunga, and they have voiced repeatedly the deep damage a tree massacre would have on this very special place.
It is also rarely acknowledged that a long term member of our group has started her own organisation. Shirley Waru is Māori and she has begun to assemble around protecting the non native trees on Ōtāhuhu/Mount Richmond. She has stated many times that it is not in her understanding of tikanga that such horrific destruction could be justified. Yet, Shirley gets very little coverage by any media, certainly less than we do for being ‘white racists’. Please note, I’m visibly not white and contain zero European DNA. The same goes for several of our other members, who consistently get rendered invisible.
So in terms of racism, it is frustrating to watch it play out in this way. If you are brown and don’t play to a cookie cutter prescription of what to believe and what to stand for, you are rendered voiceless. Much like the thousands of trees, birds and life forms about to butchered because people are unable to look past a binary construct that has been set up for them.
Additionally, regarding to 13,000 natives replacing 345 exotics – please note this doesn’t mean 13,000 trees are going to take the place of this existing urban forest. The vast majority of plantings are low growing grasses, and the vast majority of those already in the ground are dead. There are plenty of resources and data on our website http://www.honourthemaunga.org.nz for those who wish to examine this issue from its multiple angles further.
Regarding Canal Road, we were there. We were also there at Big Mac, Western Springs Forest and several other tree massacres. Sometimes for a very long time. I personally helped set up initial communications at Canal Road and dropped everything to show up at the old Four Kauri Medical Centre site recently to ask some quite dodgy tree fellers If they understood these native giants they were felling so haphazardly were someone’s ancestors. Our social media platform, which I manage, is consistently used as a voice of advocacy for other tree related movements. I hope that answers that question.
Where were we for the last ten years? Well for the last three we have been at this day in and day out, unpaid and holding down other full time roles at the same time. Frequent slander isn’t uncommon, but sometimes in life you don’t do things to be popular. You do them being it’s right, and you need to be able to live with yourself at the end of the day.
The Western Springs replanting is doing very well after the removal of the crumbling pine trees. All your chanting, cursing and pissing on the bulldozers got you nowhere.
Council spent close to $2m removing 200 mostly healthy pines, and in the process destroyed more native plants than they have replaced. Meanwhile, the area is now a wasteland.
since your comment was in response to my post I think it’s polite to reply.
I haven’t personally cursed, chanted or urinated at any tree protection sites I’ve been too.
It’s great that some of the plantings at Western Springs are surviving and doing well. I am aware there are areas where the pine chip wasn’t cleared, and therefore volatile terpenes will be preventing the others from doing as well due to inhibiting root development.
The wet winter certainly would have helped.
However, the people on site weren’t just protesting the felling of the Pines, the majority of which were not crumbling, and this was proven to be true in assessments of the area. They were protesting the destruction of an existing wild native forest underneath them.
At least 15,000 established natives – including rewarewa, pōhutukawa, kauri, tōtara, taraire, kawakawa, kowhai, puriri, tarata, whauwhaupaku, taupata, karo, karamu, puka, kiokio, harakeke, horoeka, rimu, houpara, matipo, mamaku, ponga, nikau and more lost their lives at a price tag of round about 2 million dollars to be replaced by 7000 new ones, some of which appear to be surviving.
This is what the protestors fought for, and the innumerable other lives – animal, plant, insect, microbial, fungal, fish, eels – that went with this forest. And you’re right. It achieved nothing.
Now I’m sincerely curious. What makes you feel that was a positive outcome?
Just re rotting Trees and their problem/cost/danger. I had forgotten the dangerous Lombardy Poplar.
2018
Queenstown's famed poplar trees have crushed cars, damaged a motel and killed a man, but the council still won't test the internal rot of the tree trunks.
Well..I personally …IMO, you understand..actually read the link article. And surprise..It DID say QLDC coulda/shouda.
However..IMO of course ! Dont think ALL trees need managed. SOME do. And that folks is my input here.
This has all become a bit …tiresome. So many on completely OPPOSITE sides. "Nativists" NonNativists" "Others". I cant be bothered. I'd as soon keep doing what I'm doing.
Forests that people spend a lot of time in, or that are next to important infrastructure always need to be managed.
We pay roading companies to manage the native trees that fall on the roads inside forested areas. Have you seen how much damage a full grown totara or other podocarp does when it falls?
Yes, some trees are prone to causing specific problems, including lombardies. As others point out this is a management issue, nothing to do with native or exotic. But no tree lives forever, and there will always be trees at the end of their life.
Nah. Trees tip over, especially those grown in a nursery, rather than as the result of fallen seed. Management is the answer, from start to finish. I wish every person was knowledgable about trees and plants in general.
Hear hear. BTW, Samar sent me this link. I just love what you've done. I wish I had the patience and the skills to tackle something like you both have.
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
“It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April to meet the Prime Minister’s ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 28 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was “improper” ...
As a young gymnast, Aimee Didierjean was always conscious of making sure her underwear wasn’t showing on the competition floor. A peek of a bra strap, or briefs if a leotard rode up, would cost a gymnast points in her routines. “When I was growing and going through puberty, it ...
Jubi/West Papua Daily Repeated cases of Indonesian military (TNI) soldiers torturing civilians in Papua have been evident, as seen in the viral video depicting the torture of civilians in the Puncak Regency allegedly done by soldiers of Raider 300/Brajawijaya Infantry Battalion. There is a pressing need for stringent law enforcement ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In 2023, Anthony Albanese was shooting for the moon, his eyes on the Voice referendum. On one view, he looked like the idealist reflecting his left-wing roots. In 2024, we’re seeing a pragmatic, determined, ...
The House - The principle that all MPs are honourable and that they should be taken at their word has been tested multiple times this week in Parliament. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Dickinson, Professor, Public Service Research, UNSW Sydney Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock Since the review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) released its recommendations in December, there has been a series of Town Hall events to discuss them around the country ...
I absolutely agree. James Shaw IS the right person…and he is on to it here. Labour AND Greens need to work together…to cut off Nact. I look to the Positive change that BOTH Labour and Greens have achieved…and would dread the Nact rollback. Which would happen from the get..go.
Cmon guys…Work Together !
Not worth a whole post, but annoying to get a flyer in my letterbox exhorting me to submit against Auckland's Tipuna Maunga who own and operate the volcanic cone parks of Auckland.
Tipuna Maunga are required to go to public consultation about their parks management, including removing a lot of scrappy non-native trees and re-planting them with native ones.
You can check out the usual coded racist bullshit at:
honourthemaunga.org.nz
Where were these people when over a third of Auckland's trees were chopped down over the last ten years to make way for development? Where were they at the tree protests in Avondale last year?
Where were these people when it came to replanting Motutapu Island, or the rahui on the Waitakere Ranges because the Council just sat on its ass?
Where were these people when it came to the Waitakere Ranges legislation, or the formation of Ark in the Park, or indeed on any native re-planting day by Forest and Bird?
Answer they were nowhere, because they are just a bunch BANANA hypocrites.
The Maunga Authority have already made moves that Auckland Parks Department never had the courage to do, like remove most of the cattle and sheep off parks, build decent tracks with steps, stop the cars to the top of Mt Eden, and tougher limits on traffic access elsewhere. Actual traffic-free parks.
So anyway I've submitted, telling them to get on with it faster.
Who was the flyer from?
Maybe these? Has all the signal…
"“It didn’t take long to realise we had unwittingly walked into an intersection of complex and highly nuanced issues that drive to the core of our society”."
Amen to that!
Both sites registered to this bloke.
Hmm. Yep…he certainly seems to have more than TREE issues. (Three Waters..and maybe more)
An astroturf org founded by Mr Short with a couple of nobodies, a nonagenarian and a Western BOP blow-in, as patrons has more than TREE issues. Shocked, I am.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/30-04-2020/accusations-fly-after-new-anti-semitic-vandalism-appears-at-owairaka
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/117844632/mt-albert-tree-removal-auckland-councillor-target-of-abuse-on-protest-groups-facebook-page
"I'm not familiar with those specific comments," Radford said. "But with any public interest issue you get all sorts of people coming out of the woodwork."
From the "councillor target of abuse" link above
🙂
Ah well….all is revealed. Cheers for that. Didnt think he would be a "Man of the Trees". Just using it as a nasty ploy to further his ugly side. (maybe hes all ugly)
You are wrong Jo90. Honour the Maunga is a grassroots community group that has no affiliation with any organization.
Our mission is to save 345 healthy mature trees from destruction on Owairaka Mt Albert. In doing so we hope to help around 2500 from being felled across the city's maunga
.
Don't pay too much mind to all the ludicrous Woke moral posturing, Anna, … a small cadre of dogmatists here, along with their highly opportunistic fellow-travellers (who possess a consummate instinct for detecting where power & future self-interest lie) have important (& highly performative) Heroic White Saviour work to do …
… there'll be no ostentatious virtue-signaling (& hence, no elite in-group prestige-enhancement) to be had without fabricating yet another batch of "white supremacist" enemies out of thin air … then framing the issue – with wild-eyed dishonesty – as a "racist" attack on eternally virtuous & victimised (yet suprisingly assertive & authoritarian) Iwi Authorities.
Putting aside, of course, the fact that the TMA actually includes non-Māori city council reps … unfortunately, that’s a little too inconvenient for their “Ahhh, this is just Colonisation all over again !!!” narrative.
I couldn't make head nor tail of that, Swordfish, but it does make you sound confident … in something!
which sites are you referring to Joe? Honourthemaunga domain isn't registered to him, and democracyaction is registered to a company.
I'll take Anna's word that Short isn't associated with the honourthemaunga loons however Short is listed as the democracyaction registrant contact.
thanks.
There's no connection between democracyaction and HTM other than that democracyaction are writing posts about it?
We aren't 'loons' Joe. We are a group of people who don't think it's a good idea to chop down thousands of mature trees on reserves across Tāmaki, whether they be native or non native.
Nope, not loons.
/
Are you suggesting someone from HtM did that? Because if you have any evidence, you should go to the police with it.
Apart from the fact grafitti is not our style – do you really think Honour the Maunga would be stupid enough to do grafitti right by what was our occupation site at the time? Puh-lese!
Interestingly, police and grafitti removal contractors told us a number of things about this grafitti was odd – not your normal protest type grafitti. Make of that what you will.
Puritan Witchfinder-Generals don't need evidence … their wild smears, baseless accusations & character assassination (from an absurdly presumed 'moral high-ground') should be more than enough.
Any critic of the policies pursued by any powerful Iwi-led organisation – no matter how controversial or unpopular those policies – would appear to be a deadly enemy of Joe’s.
Which, I think, just goes to show what ‘unusually-refined moral sensibilities’ he possesses.
Cutting down trees at this point in the climate age is utterly bonkers unless you have a bloody good reason (and yes, we do it far too much for development and it blows my mind that few people seem to be bothered by this). I don't think replacing with natives usually is if the tree being removed is fully grown and it's going to take 30 or more years to replace it, especially as usually the natives can be planted alongside the exotics and then the exotics taken out later. We still have a slash and burn mentality in NZ, even among the nativists.
(edited)
will also add that in addition to casual, unconscious or outright racism, often people have strong attachments to trees. If someone were cutting down the half century old trees in my neighbourhood and I wouldn't see trees that old again there before I die, I'd be upset too.
and looking at https://honourthemaunga.org.nz/ I can totally see what the objection is.
They appear to be removing exotics for the sake of it 🙁
https://honourthemaunga.org.nz/our-concerns
They took out 100 historic olive trees. This is fucked. Would love to hear the counter arguments for the specific tree sets that have been removed.
In Mt Albert they were about to take out 345 non-native trees and replace them with 13,000 native ones.
Ōwairaka / Mt Albert tree removal: Maunga authority loses Supreme Court bid | Stuff.co.nz
It ain't that hard.
Ad, if I may ask, why do the exotics need to be removed?
Is the reason pragmatic, ideological, vital, mistaken?
Genuinely interested. In other situations, leaving exotics in situ and planting around them could be a valid process, I think.
Decolonising in action. All exotics must go.
There are eucalyptus leaves in New Zealand's fossil record.
And coconuts 🙂
The planting plan for Ōwairaka is available on the Tree Advocates website.
That shows that very few of the 13,000 plants are actually 'trees'. One of the concerns of the local community is the loss of habitat for Ōwairaka's thriving native bird life.
Except the planting plans for Ōwairaka show the 13,000 natives are mostly low growing species such as grasses, flaxes and shrubs. The new plantings you see around the archery field and domain gates represent nearly half the intended amount. There is no intention to cloak the maunga in forest. The intention is for largely bare looking maunga with mostly low plantings on the lower slopes.
Hmmmm….
The replacement 13,000 proposed are not trees, they have proven to be flaxes, cabbage trees and low lying shrubs. Where these have been planted most have struggled to survive and many are being strangled by kikuyu grass (which, as you know, isn't a native).
Similar experience on Māngere Mountain. The TMA planted in plastic pots placed on top of the ground. Between the kikuyu, the sparse soil structure and hostile climatic conditions, they had the same issues.
I grew up in Mt. Albert. Owairaka was my playground. I played under those trees and walked among them as an adult. They are beautiful and hold special memories for a great many people. I presume they were planted in the late 1800s or early 1900s. To cut trees like that down is a sacrilege.
Owairaka has many open spaces, grassy knolls and slopes. There is ample room for both native and exotic trees. I can accept sacrificing some of the lesser exotics but a wholesale removal of historic trees is arrogant and insulting. It smacks in my view of reverse racism because they were likely planted by Pakeha.
Weka you should probably come up and have a look.
More coverage, higher diversity, richer amenity.
Not all trees are equal, and carbon is is not the only measure.
I'm not talking about carbon, I'm talking about life and whole systems ecology.
I shouldn't need to come up there, and I'm sure there are lots of beautiful plantings being done. But if that website is correct, there are gratuitous fellings going on as well. NZ has a subculture of nativists who will remove exotics just because they believe they are wrong, and in some cases because they hate them. This is anti-nature.
it still takes 50 years to replace a 50 year old tree. The only way I can understand this is to think that most people still don't believe the climate crisis is here now.
Probably you need to search a bit further than the prime advocacy site.
If you go up to the Ranger Station on Auckland's Scenic Drive you can see a photo from the 1920s of the hills before the whole conservation effort got going.
Pasture and burnt stumps as far as the eye can see.
100 years later, solid native forest. Suburbanisation stopped. Weeds and non-natives at a standstill though not perfect. Everyone in on it.
The only city in the world to situate right next to its own subtropical forest. Much of it in replanting, all of it native.
Same around the Hunuas.
You can always fill a hall with people trying to stop something. But you need an actual fight to fill a phonebooth with people prepared to plant.
Two thoughts from me over this issue.
One – do we trust Tangata Whenua to decide what should be planted on their land – which was returned to them under a Treaty settlement and to which they graciously allow the public to access, or do we not? The Maunga were returned to Iwi because they have historic and sacred importance. The whole of Maungawhau is wahi tapu for example.
Two – do we realise that these are weathered volcanic cones with difficult soil conditions and they are also sites full of archaeology? We disrespected them for decades by quarrying the basalt for building roads etc and we planted unsuitable vegetation like Australian gum trees on the steep slopes. We ran stock on them for decades and trampled the archaeology.
Iwi want to return the Maunga to their traditional planting. It is difficult to do this with a piecemeal approach as it is important to reduce the number of times heavy machinery will have to access the Maunga.
There are a few things there: who has the right to decide? who has the right to protest? What knowledge bases are being used to make decisions?
When that other protest was happening last year or so in Auckland (sorry don't remember the name), I saw a *lot of people saying that we should trust the people managing the project because they were the experts. But the point is that the authorities have their own tech biases as well.
eg We know that most councils, DOC and native groups have seen gorse as the enemy. Those in the counter culture figured out how to work with gorse and grow native trees up through it. The first method is slash and burn, the latter is permaculture.
This should be compulsory viewing, but it needs to be understood in terms of systems not just mechanics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VZSJKbzyMc&ab_channel=HappenFilms
Nicely contributed, Visubversa.
In response to Question One – yes.
In response to Question Two – yes.
My fervent hope though, is that manawhenua are involving others who have valid views, in the planning/decision-making. This is something Ngāi Tahu do well.
"One – do we trust Tangata Whenua to decide what should be planted on their land – which was returned to them under a Treaty settlement and to which they graciously allow the public to access, or do we not? The Maunga were returned to Iwi because they have historic and sacred importance. The whole of Maungawhau is wahi tapu for example."
I appreciate this line of questioning, and it challenged me when I first got involved. But then I learned that the Tūpuna Maunga Authority never actually consulted with mana whenua about the removal of the exotic trees. And it gets worse. The court action revealed that the idea to conduct a one-stage removal of all exotics across the maunga network was never discussed even by Authority members, and was never formally voted on by the Authority. That has caused huge division, and the result is wider community disaffection with the TMA from both Maori and non-Maori.
"Pasture and burnt stumps as far as the eye can see."
The story of NZ, right?
I'm going to name explicitly here the need to step out of the binary. Native vs non-native. Planting vs stopping felling. There are other ways. eg plant and then remove the exotics. Treat the site as a whole ecosystem. I support native restoration. I don't support some of the ways that is being done.
Are the against group opposed to native restoration? Is there a missed opportunity to get them helping with the planting?
With you on this one weka, thanks for putting up the counter.
I suspect it's not a binary, weka. Those involved are likely to be balancing a number of factors. I'd like to hear why the group seeks to remove all exotic trees. Their answer may be finessed. Here's an example to consider:
Whitebait are threatened with extinction. Whitebaiting should be banned. Whitebaiting is a cultural harvest for manawhenua.
Whattayagunnado?
Kākāpō was also a cultural harvest for manawhenua, but we've banned that. Maybe we need to get closer to extinction of whitebait 🙁
Completely agree. My comments are generalised because I'm at the other end of the country. But also informed by the previous protest in Auckland, which had a lot of progressives refusing to address the whole systems approach and instead being nativist and taking a 'the authorities know what they are doing' approach. As you said elsewhere, it's a hard conversation to make headway in.
I'm not finding anything on the TPA site that addresses the issues being raised by the protest. It's slick and structured like most higher authority sites, channeling the information and kaupapa they want.
The protest site content is damning, but I'd like to see a critique of that from people that know the area so I can understand any bias here too.
Mostly I’m just tired. Of the incessant resistance to working with nature, and the huge blind spot about climate and ecology. We say climate change is real, but we act as if it is not.
You do need to get back into your garden, weka.
As do I.
thanks Robert.
Hi Weka. Our group supports succession to fully native vegetation on the maunga, but question the environmentally destructive way the Authority plans to do it. Also, planting plans show the natives are going in different places to where most of the exotics currently are, so why not have the best of both worlds.
And yes, myself and others from our group have helped at planting days.
thanks Anna, appreciate the input from group members today clarifying your position.
"Not all trees are equal, and carbon is is not the only measure."
but climate change!!!!!!!
yes, all trees are equal. All trees are good. And as weka said, you can plant natives and remove the 'exotics' slowly bit by bit.
You do realise that any and all fruit trees in NZ are literally 'exotics' other then the few natives that carry some sort of berries.
A classic case of making sure everything looks like a nail.
either we need trees and we should plant them for climate change and in this case all trees are good, shade providing, cool temperature providing beings, or we dont need trees they are not the important beings that this planets needs.
Again, every apple, pear, cherry tree, ever grape vine, every passionfruit vine, pretty much most of the berries, all are imported. shall we start ripping them out with gusto to replace them with natives?
Never mind the impact on local wild live and that includes birds. But then we can blame cats for the demise of birds. After all the native birds would never feast, nest, live in a non native tree.
And then there is the idiocy of ripping out a tree that can provide a good food source for the next thousand years. But i guess if we grow it then we don't buy it.
as a side bar, this is how fucking insane humans are currently. In lower Central Otago they pulled out orchards and replaced them with dairy cows. Globalisation will kill us all.
We are Ferengi.
The Word for World is Forest.
Are you familiar with Robin Wall Kimmerer's "Honourable Harvest"?
That's a useful guide to behaviour, right there 🙂
"All trees are good"
Whatabout…those trees that trap birds with their stickiness – not a nice way to go, feathers gummed-up and no escape :-0
Chasse à la glu.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/28/french-court-outlaws-glue-trap-hunting-of-songbirds
https://migratorysoaringbirds.birdlife.org/en/news/illegal-hunting-methods-closer-look-mediterranean
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdlime
Nor, I suppose, is being torn apart by a bird's beak 🙂
(Thus spoke the snail)
It's a complex net we find ourselves in.
Fishing the olearia tree.
The net used by Maui to slow the sun fascinates me, in light of the woven sails used by the earliest Pacific navigators.
tell me more?
Net is one of the great technologies. It was probably more important than stone tools, and it survives as a craft today in knitting (knitting uses reef knots, net uses sheet bends – but otherwise they are the same). But stone tools last the millenia, while crude fibres (and bamboo tools for that matter) do not.
I think though, that Maori whitebait nets were woven, not braided – very different things.
Weaving, knitting, braiding, stitching, sewing etc. survive in the culture of women – a far more reliable insurance than the hardness of stone.
🙂
See above 🙂
This conundrum/threat is one that I've been addressing since forever through my different writing/speaking forums (NZ Gardener, regional council, YouTube, here etc.)
You rightly describe the driver for the clearances as "slash and burn mentality", and it's not until a new approach to landscape management becomes embedded in our thinking, will this change. Progress has been made, but it's painfully slow. I do believe, however, that a tipping-point will be reached as the balance is shifted through the various forums that promote and describe new ways to see the natural world. Until then we will have to endure stuff-ups such as this.
Oh ? I certainly know..a LOT of "Nativists"….dont think Ive met any keen "slash and burners" . Maybe Ive not been in those groups…
It's so frustrating when people who care about trees, splinter into sub-groups and thwart the others. Same as ever it was.
Those who don't care at all about trees, don't suffer from divisiveness at all, bless their blue hearts!
Hmm, yea Ive not really struck it personally. Maybe wilding pines ? (which are a Tree…problem, spreading/enveloping… everything, everywhere : (
Anyway, re
The page def has a lot of nice pictures of Native Birds. It would be great to actually hear more from anyone ACTUALLY involved ..on both.."sides". For more perspective.
There must be more common ground..than not?
"There must be more common ground..than not?"
Indeed.
Tui love plum blossom. Kereru love eucalyptus flowers.
And willow & poplar buds.
And palm berries/fruit (whatever they're called) – kereru flock to them in Auckland suburban gardens.
Hi PLA
I have been an active supporter of Honour the Maunga since November 2019. I'm not a regular here. I live on the slopes of Owairaka, and I fully support a transition to native planting, but over time. And yes I genuinely hope and believe there is common ground, because this is causing division across Tāmaki, not just in Mt Albert.
Oh,Hi, and thanks very much for replying on here ! And yes re the Common Ground. Surely ! As you say I would think it reasonable to transition over time. So no sudden hack down..but a careful replanting as you go…as happens in other parts of NZ and the World.
Is sad that some with different Agendas have tried to use this against. Nasty …
Anyway..again thanks..and I will like to hear in future re common ground?
Cheers
Encouragement from Ngati Whatua back in 2020.
Ōwairaka/Mt Albert tree impasse: Time to move forward, agree protesters and Ngati Whatua – NZ Herald
"The chair of the Tūpuna Maunga Authority has indicated a readiness to consider some compromise and I would urge the protest group, as I did in my correspondence to them several months ago, to enter into a direct discussion with the TMA and iwi owners in good faith to find a way through the current impasse."
From the link above.
Continues:
""Authority representatives met with protest group representatives in January this year to ascertain if there was any common ground but nothing came of it," he said today."
That was in 2020, and the TMA ruled out any compromise. Since then they have simply refused to meet.
Chance would be a fine thing. TMA have stonewalled all attempts at dialogue.
"Cmon guys…Work Together !"
PsyclingLeft.Always1
18 September 2022 at 8:13 am
….. …..
perhaps you didn't know what I meant?
Are you not aware of people that will remove exotics because they are exotics? No tree being better than an exotic one.
That was a quick weeding : ) No I wasnt really sure what you meant? Maybe you could let me..and others know which "Nativists" are keen on "slash/burning" . Just so I know who to avoid?
Came inside for breakfast 🙂
Not sure why you would want to avoid them. It's a mentality and belief system, not a plague.
Examples of slash and burn (as I used the term).
Removing exotic trees and leaving bare land, because exotics are wrong.
Seeing gorse as the enemy and spraying, or burning, to get rid of it, then having to battle regrowth from all the seeds in the soil, trying to plant trees in soil that's now been degraded from the fire or herbicide. Instead, use gorse as a nursery crop, take advantage of its nitrogen fixing powers as well as its protection from the elements and stock, plant into it, or use other techniques to get natives established. See the video I posted above.
Spraying wilding pines in some areas because they are 'bad' rather than seeing them as a resource that can be harvested, or as pioneers that can be used to help re-establish forest.
The amount of spray we use to beat back the non-natives instead of working with ecological processes to restore functional ecosystems.
1080/pindone-ing accessible areas instead of using hunters and harvesting possums and rabbits.
People hating pine trees because they're not native, and ignoring the fact that most of our houses are built from pines.
https://thestandard.org.nz/what-if-we-let-the-wilding-pines-grow/
Wilding pine forest: they grow themselves.
Ok. I still dont see any "Nativists" ? Anyway…Sunny Day. Ima going "weeding" : ) Catch you later
do you know what nativist means, PLA?
Well…I KINDA thought… people that like Native Flora (and Fauna etc) If wrong..well ok. As the people I know are very Nice : )
Then I saw there was this..
And
And
So…I maybe dont know WHAT you mean. Pray tell : )
In NZ, in the context of this conversation, nativist means believing that native plants are good and exotics are bad. It's a belief system that supports removal of non-native vegetation even if it's not replaced with anything. It's the belief system that leads to chopping down trees simply because they are exotic (and this seems to be happening in the area Ad posted about).
It doesn't mean people that like native plants.
Ok Weka thanks for clarifying that. (no reply button) I can say…I'm glad its not people that like Native Plants ! : )
And also to clarify FYI…(dont know if I really NEED to) of course I..and well, people I know very much like fruit trees, trees…beautiful trees.
weka,pins trees offer organic solvents and our own form of Myrrh and Frankincense,I use daily,good for body and mind.
DoC and Forest & Bird support the use of herbicides (biocides; that is, life-killers) in the pursuit of their objectives (an example, as asked for).
Mmkay..quickly. They also support 1080. Proven to bring back Native Birds. Remember ("Work Together" : )
I'm not decrying them. You asked for examples.
1080 is an insecticide, right?
Not sure how the Insect Kingdom feels about that (especially the native ones – ever seen a peripitus? Not an insect, but…)
Not wanting to start a discussion on 1080.
Ok then Robert. I'll wait on the Definitive "Nativist" definition…as reckoned by Weka.
I think they just gave you theirs.
Forest & Bird supports Tūpuna Maunga Authority destroying some 2500 trees across the maunga. So does the Tree Council.
Who would have thought!
Possibly because they understand Kaitiakitanga. And the ecology of the Maunga.
You do know Tūpuna Maunga Authority's Chairman is a lawyer and property developer who a) represented the mining company fighting local iwi who were trying to protect the environment in the Taranaki iron sands case; b) represented the marina developers who destroyed korua blue penguin homes on Waiheke Island; c) represented interests fighting a couple who were trying to prevent a roading bypass from destroying virgin native forest.
Just because someone is Māori doesn't automatically mean they care about the environment or are automatically going to do a good job of looking after it. Just like just because someone is Pākeha does not mean they automatically want to exploit the environment, and know nothing about good environmental stewardship.
By the way, Tūpuna Maunga Authority did not consult anyone – not even the iwi it represents – before it destroyed hundreds of trees on Mangere, Maungarei and Ōhuirangi Pigeon Mountain. It still wouldn't be consulting anyone if legal action hadn't been taken.
There are a lot of layers in this issue.
The wilding pine organisations are determined to kill trees en mass without replanting trees at all. They favour pasture over forests.
ALL of them ? As I see ….there are some that are pretty interested in protecting our NZ Native Biodiversity from wilding Pines…up the Mountains. You and Weka should head up there sometime : )
I do. And I cull weed pine seedlings. Saving snow tussock..skinks,geckos,moths..and many others that would not survive in a pine …forest.
The skink, gecko, moth and snow tussock crowd are wonderful. The main protagonists in the wilding pines destruction programmes though, are tree-despising pro-agriculturalists though, yes?
Ok Robert…Ima seeing real connecting here (kinda like I want Labour and Green : )
And yep, Tree removal by the Milk Mafia ? Not acceptable. Ever.
Cheers : )
regular sheep farmers too. Thinking about Mid Dome in Northern Southland.
This is from 2018. Around the time the government adopted the Greens' plan for mass tree planting (and handed the organising to NZF 🙄).
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/shocking-images-show-threat-wilding-pines
So if we did nothing, we'd have 20% of NZ reforested in the next decade (not quite, as the trees still need time to grow). But instead, we're going to spend a large amount of money, time and effort to beat back the bush and do what instead? Keep most of that land in pasture?
Here's another idea. Put major R&D resources into figuring out how to use the wilding pines at Mid Dome to establish a mixed forest. On the lower slopes, make that food forestry and/or agroforestry. Upper slopes can be hunting forestry.
Re mid- Dome accepting and using the trees that are there was always my view as a lowly PS back in the day. There was such vehement outpouring against the trees I asked a forester if they had some genetic impediment. Couldn't they be managed. No impediment, just classed as weeds so therefore not wanted.
The wilding pines at Mid Dome are contorta and it spreads very rapidly. NB both wilding pines and gorse if it is wanted to be removed respond to appropriate stocking pressure (using sheep) along the boundaries. This does not happen, cannot happen sometimes as the boundary has been placed in a poor place or the soil is too frail. If the tussock is to be encouraged to come back then the hard-ish stocking required to keep contorta at bay will also have an adverse effect on tussock.
https://www.middomewildingtreestrust.co.nz/what-we-do/
Huge continuing landuse conflicts can be foreseen. Not sure if the option of managing the forest that is left has been explored at all. This would remove the Pinus Contorta and Pinus Mugo and replant in something. The reason that Pinus species was planted at all was for erosion control purposes and we would be crazy to think that this risk of erosion has gone away because we don't like the species they planted to help control the erosion.
The spread of pines around Mt Cook and the Mackenzie Basin is at least as troubling though MB is now a more degraded landscape than it was when many were concerned about the spread of pines into beautiful tussock land.
The Germans as landuse managers seem to be able to work forestry, agriculture, etc together. At the very least soil & climate map with a large helping of climate change best practice should be the guides.
Yes.
There's also the vertical range of introduced conifers in the South Island high country. Beech and totara go up to around 1000m, above that would be a tussock ecosystem.
Douglas Fir and Contorta will happily go up to 15 – 1700m, and European Larch will grow well over 2000m. So we'd end up with no tussock cover and conifer cover to the top of nearly all the southern high country if the wildings were left unchecked. This would be a dramatic and irreversible change to the ecosystem of the high country if left unchecked.
This has already occurred on the hills above Queenstown where conifers have spread up into what have always been tussock above remnant fingers of beach. The higher spread of conifers has been removed and lower areas are being removed as well and the intention is to replace these with beech and other non-invasive species.
Robert, I can vouch for..and am in total agreement with Graeme's comment
Its not JUST wilding pines up there…. And protecting Our existing NZ Biodiversity up there…is paramount..for me and many others. I am focused on that.
Scratch a developer of the tiniest urban section and you will find a slasher/burner. Though they use machinery to prepare a suitable place for housing as they put up 12 units where there was formerly only one. I had a developer who demolished the house next door and in 'napalming' the garden and levelling the already level section pulled out vegetation and in doing so laid the fence to waste. To get the house bits out and the bulldozer in they 'trimmed' all the trees up the shared drive, including those from my side. The top soil that there was on this mainly sandy soil was smoothed out ie removed. Successive blows denuded the section as what was left was pure sand. Now the houses grow concrete and typical beachy weeds. The houses could have been built keeping many of the trees but 'nah'. Too hard.
I am keen on revegetating but done by annihilating every 'naughty' tree that is growing there is not a sensible way to do it. Gertude Stein and her comment 'a rose, is a rose is a rose' is way to look at it. A tree is a tree is a tree could be one way to look. I would start by removing threes like banksias and wattles and some gums. Some gums are special but many are not. Leave the unusual, the olive planation or large trees. Pocket plant. When trees start throwing down branches then remove and pocket plant. (gums are notorious for throwing down branches) But do it slowly and with the help of good arborists.
The 3-30-300 rule is what we should have in our cities.
https://iucnurbanalliance.org/promoting-health-and-wellbeing-through-urban-forests-introducing-the-3-30-300-rule/
So every home should see three trees at least from the windows, 30% of every neighbourhood should have tree canopy and every home should be 300m from every park or green space. Trees and green space are the lungs of the city.
We honour the desire to move to native but do not be silly about it. So saving every last tree, no matter what its merits on Owairaka has no merit and neither does felling every tree no matter what its merits.
Very measured response. Makes sense to me. I wonder what "they" would make of such suggestions
Hi Shanreagh. Thanks reply. Have you seen any local Transition Town action recently? I did search….
Older…
Newer…
On other I see Tory Whanau getting quite a lot of support !
I have said I really rate her..and esp her Environment Ideas : )
I think the issue is "worth a whole post" 🙂
I do too. Would you like to write one?
My blood is starting to boil so I'm off outside into the garden for a while 🙂
lol..getting stuck into some weeds ! A Win/Win : )
Weeds?
Again, “It didn’t take long to realise we had unwittingly walked into an intersection of complex and highly nuanced issues that drive to the core of our society”.
🙂
there are no weeds. Only food (for all of life) and plants for recycling.
An english garderner once stated that 'weeds are beneficial plants that grow in the wrong part of the garden'.
Many weeds are quick-turnover transitional entities. Once their work is done, they disappear. When we intervene, we can thwart that process and force an eventual replay of events. Learning how to use that phenomenon can often save everyone a lot of anguish.
weka @ 2.3.1
I think I will do the same… after I've had yet another cup of strong tea to settle me down. 😉
I'm pruning apple trees to encourage fruiting. So many to do. 14 orchards.
Won't be finished today 🙂
I'm kinda reminded of..Johnny Appleseed. Onya !
Oh dear – the lazy resort to calling people you disagree with racist.
Perhaps they just have a connection to the grand old trees and don't want them to go.
"What we ask for
Best practice is for succession to fully native vegetation to be carried out over decades – just as would happen in nature – so that the native plantings are supported by the existing, mature forest.
We are therefore asking for a phased transition to fully native vegetation that takes account of each tree’s natural life. Only fell a tree if an independent arboriculture expert makes a strong case based on internationally-recognised best practice.
We also respectfully ask Tūpuna Maunga Authority and Auckland Council to engage with us with integrity, in the spirit of positive partnership, to protect Ōwairaka and her life-forms.
“A living tree is a signpost for a habitable planet.”
– Sir Harold Marshall, Honour the Maunga Patron"
If everyone involved understood the issue in its entirety, what would be the outcome, I wonder?
It's complex. We've already seen with the anti-mandate protests that groups can be a real mix of people, and that this can include racism in various ways. See Joe's comment and follow the trail,
.https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-18-09-2022/#comment-1910904
I live under Maungarei.
They removed a stand of dangerous, leggy, brittle pine from the southern cliff face by helicopter a year or two ago. There's a small amount of rubbish left over because it's very steep. This and the cost has been used by honourthemaunga as evidence of destruction and waste but the simple truth is mountain looks much better and is safer.
They also put the gates in and have recently redone the steps to summit, both improvements. Last thing they did was put screw in judder bars on the road both sides. This I hate because I'm a cyclist and use this mountain for exercise, but I understand why it was done (pedestrian safety) and I'll get used to it.
That is it. The same people complained about the removal of a collection of crumbling Monteray Pine trees from Western Springs Park. The trees were actively dangerous and the falling branches required the closure of the tracks on that area of the Park. They held up the process for so long that it was not possible to helicopter the trees out because they had become so fragile so clear felling was the only option. The trees are now gone, the replanting has been done and the vegetation is regrowing. They are still complaining about it.
Those pines weren't 'crumbling'. The Council's own survey showed virtually all of the 200 trees were safe. And they were providing canopy to a thriving native understorey. Council spent close to $2m and destroyed the lot. They spent $2m destroying around 15,000 native plants, and then replanted far less. Crazy.
Please provide a link to that Council survey, so we can all check your assertions.
In any case, it appears that many felled trees were not in good health at all.
https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/news/2021/06/breathing-new-life-into-western-springs-park/
It appears that the council claims the trees were not in good health. Others disagree. Steve Abel (April 2021)
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/28-04-2021/western-springs-forest-isnt-being-restored-its-being-wantonly-destroyed
I’m not an arborist but those felled trees in those photos look pretty rotten to the core to me. My questions are in how bad a condition were those trees really, how long would the other seemingly heathy trees stayed healthy, and how much was and could have known about this before the actual felling. Sometimes you don’t know how bad things are until you open up the patient.
I count one tree with significant rotting, and four others with varying degrees of what is presumably a rotting process. Or maybe this is what old Monterey pines look like inside. Who knows. Arborists do and will have a range of opinions on them. The council could publish their expert assessment reports instead of just doing PR on their blog.
Somewhere in the middle no doubt is the truth. At the moment we have the council saying they all had to go because they were dangerous, and treehuggers saying there were a few that needed to be removed for safety.
I’m waiting for a response from that new commenter to provide a link to the Council survey.
Both would be good.
Google is telling me that there are different kinds of rot, some more serious than others.
I have not and will not go that far, as I’m trying to do other things this morning, so far with little success…
AFAIK, rot is not reversible but can be stopped or slowed down. At some stage a decision has to be made to put the axe to it and re-plant new trees, I’d imagine, unless one waits for Mother Nature, which could be risky and unpredictable.
theres's this, with reference to the arborist survey but it's not the survey itself.
https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/ResourceConsentDocuments/luc60321424-11-apendix5-arboristreport.pdf
and this, different arborist, from Oct 2020.
https://knowledgeauckland.org.nz/media/2446/western-springs-pines-technical-report-a-benson-treeconsultancy-oct-2020.pdf
the report for Society for the Protection of Western Springs Fores, 2019
(posting these for reference for everyone)
https://www.validtreerisk.com/resources/Documents/Case%20Studies/Western%20Springs%20Pines/QTRA%20-%20Western%20Springs%20Pines.pdf
my guess is that the council made a pragmatic decision based on a range of factors including budget.
Still don't like the whole PR spin (for some reason I still have some hope for better democracy including at the local body level).
Spin and counter-spin seem to be happening more and more on all levels and at all layers of society and public discourse. For that reason, I cannot take anything said, claimed, and asserted here on TS by commenters at face value without reasonable argument and supporting evidence. That said, decisions need to be made, on a daily basis, and these are delegated to authorities that have to be transparent and accountable (for that exact reason) – they do not have to be omniscient and infallible.
What annoys me is that we have all this money and time being spent on assessments and reports, and we have the internet. Why not put up a website explaining it all, telling the truth, giving the information to the public alongside neutral interpretations of that, keep local communities informed and engaged.
Well, I can see two sides to that: 1) keep the people informed; 2) keep the people involved. The involvement can comprise anything available in a democratic society all the way to Parliament or the Supreme Court. There has to be a balance, which is [achieved by] controlling the information flow and thus the level of ‘citizen’ involvement & engagement. In other words, what we call spin is a necessary evil that is both the balance as well as the thing that needs to be balanced, if that makes any sense.
Hi Weka
"and this, different arborist, from Oct 2020."
That's the Council commissioned report by Andrew Benson that (I assume) Steve Abel refers to.
The Chris Benton report was a full 'tree by tree' assessment, and found that "94% of the pine trees are stable (low-medium risk) and
pose no more risk than trees growing within any normal forest." (I have a PDF version, but no link, sorry).
are you able to email me the PDF?
"Why not put up a website explaining it all, telling the truth, giving the information to the public alongside neutral interpretations of that, keep local communities informed and engaged."
Well that depends on your motivation. It soon became clear to me that the removal of the pines at WS Forest was nothing to do with ecology and everything to do with ideology. You used a term 'nativism' in the dialogue yesterday. This is real problem in Auckland at the moment. It is unlikely that the community would accept the idea of removing even a small stand of pine trees at around $2m simply because they are pines. But label them 'dangerous', say you'll plant thousands of natives, and ignore the fact that you'll be destroying a native understorey of close to 15,000 plants, and bobs your uncle.
To Weka
"are you able to email me the PDF?"
Yes, of course. Where to?
Weka I've just emailed the PDF to the email address shown on the site.
hmm, that might work. I'll ask the sysop to forward it to me. thanks.
I was the lead submitter on the Council's resource consent application for WSF clearance.
Truth is this was a Treescape promoted clearance ( x Treescape arborist did the report demonstrating most of the trees were not falling down but he is know to dislike pines) but he concluded that all the trees should go in one clearance. He only ever surveyed the pines when this was a mixed forest. Back up support was supplied by Greenscene Council's go to company to get the report they want to get rid of trees ( Big Mac)
Treescape were Council's preferred contractor at that stage and x Treescape employees were in charge of the management of the Forest. Do you get the picture yet?
The numbers of healthy trees were always the side issue to keep people arguing as Incognito has demonstrated. And to waste money on reports, jobs for the boys!
Let us remember originally there were 700 pine trees and by the time Treescape targeted Western Springs for their clearfelling clearance big idea and big payoff methodology there were less than 200 left ( they had naturally fallen or been maintained and absorbed by the Forest processes) but there was a closed canopy regenerating native forest underneath which Council REFUSED to survey. Many of the native trees were over 3 metres and protected trees which Council did not have a resource consent to remove.
Western Springs Forest Clearance was also supported by Pippa Coom cos she wanted to put a circular cycle track in the Forest which would have destroyed the WSF Significant Ecological Area . CCF are currently installing Coom's cycle track
The Resource Consent Application made it clear Council and Coom were not telling the truth they only ever intended to restore the forest to park not a native forest. Hence the number of plants in the planting plan kept getting reduced now only 8000 odd ( mostly PB 5s) when there should have been 35,000 with some specimen trees.
The residents were harassed and bullied by CCF and the people of Auckland were very poorly served by Council on this project. Executive Heads should have rolled. But Rod Sheridan resigned just as the contract started! There are still a few more who should be held to account for this monumental waste of ratepayers money, well in excess of $2million closer to $3million by my estimation, with legals.
"Please provide a link to that Council survey, so we can all check your assertions."
Technical report – Western Springs Pines (aucklandcouncil.govt.nz)
Extract:
The VALID risk assessment produced:
• 141 ‘Acceptable’ risks (71%)
• 6 ‘Tolerable’ risks (3%)
• 50 ‘Not Tolerable’ risks (25%)
• 1 ‘Not Acceptable’ risks (1%)
In any case, it appears that many felled trees were not in good health at all.
Your link is an Auckland Council propaganda piece.
thanks. That's 1/4 of the trees that are dangerous, which is a bit different from "virtually all" the trees being safe.
The report is a risk analysis. The classification 'not tolerable' does not necessarily mean unsafe, it simply means there is a risk associated with that tree that is not currently tolerable. That could mean a large branch needs removing or, as the author points out, "restricting access to some or all of the forest because of future risk uncertainties and will almost certainly require that the trees be managed until they reach their ultimate demise"
Yes but in what time frame? Immediately? Next week? Chris Benton's opinion was that "94% of the pine trees are stable (low-medium risk) and pose no more risk than trees growing within any normal forest." But even accepting the Benson review, why destroy a thriving urban native forest to plant another one?
I have not seen Benton’s opinion, so I cannot comment and I cannot take your word for it, at this stage.
The forest was not thriving at all!!
From the Benson report:
Since the pines were exotic pines it logically follows that the forest cannot be a native forest. Are you gaslighting?
"I have not seen Benton’s opinion, so I cannot comment and I cannot take your word for it, at this stage."
I've sent the Benton report to the sites email address.
I will quote directly from it:
"94% of the pine trees are stable (low-medium risk) and
pose no more risk than trees growing within any normal forest."
I see that you have not retracted your nonsensical assertion of “a thriving urban native forest” [my italics]
One of the two options presented by Benson in his report to Auckland Council was:
For Incognito
Chris Benton's report was the only tree by tree assessment done of all the pines.
The other expert reports were visual tree assessment methodology. As the name suggests it takes less time and the original x Treescape arborist became infamous for his reference to "eyeballing" the pines from a distance.
Tree by tree assessment is more robust and took over a week to complete.
The other assessments were commissioned by AC executive team to get their most expensive solution over the line.
It was always obvious that managing the trees down over time would be the best solution and the most cost effective.
The sad state of "expert" reports industry today is you can buy an expert for any outcome you wish and this happens on a daily basis in the Resource Consent industry.
Relying solely on the " experts" in a situation as complex as the WSF clearance without background information will not get you to the facts.
"The forest was not thriving at all!!"
With respect, you're confusing the native forest with the Pine forest. My comment was "why destroy a thriving urban native forest to plant another one?"
The pines were close to 100 years old. My concern was not managing them out, it was doing so in a thoroughly irresponsible way that destroyed the thriving native forest underneath them.
"I see that you have not retracted your nonsensical assertion of “a thriving urban native forest” "
"Western Springs Forest is designated a significant ecological area because of the richness of its native ecology. Thirty-year-old karo trees interspersed with red matipo and a dense variety of native tree ferns including ponga (silver fern) and māmaku form an understorey that is home to tūī, pīwakawaka, kōtare, ruru and spoonbills. It is habitat to copper skinks, pūriri moths, giant centipedes, wētā and a host of other native insects. The canopy of this forest is a stag-horned stand of 200 Monterey pines – planted in the 1920s to hold the hillside up around the time the stucco and brick workingmen’s cottages were built along West View and Garnet Roads. These trees are now nearly 100 years old.
Around 80 years ago, silver ferns were the first native vegetation to begin reclaiming the gullies under the then-youthful pines. Those same ferns are now tall elders with black cut-bristle trunks assembled alongside the lowest part of the public track. There are native plants that are rarely seen in urban settings, such as sickle spleenworts (petako) and drooping spleenworts (makawe), growing from the base of pine trunks, houndstongue (kōwaowao/paraharaha) clambers happily over long-fallen logs, and all manner of weird and colourful fungi sprout in the autumn from the rich decaying biomass supplied by the pines. Kōtuku (white heron) peruse the lake from the high pine canopy."
Righteo, we were talking about the pines in a forest that is referred to in the Benson report as “forest” and “pine forest” and then you switch to a different issue and expect others to read your mind and take the same mental leap!?
"Righteo, we were talking about the pines in a forest that is referred to in the Benson report as “forest” and “pine forest” and then you switch to a different issue and expect others to read your mind and take the same mental leap!?"
You would have followed it quite easily if you had been following the thread or if you had any prior knowledge of the issue.. The native forest has been mentioned here several times.
Sure, you’ve mentioned many things. The core issue was the pine forest, which was in a poor state. Your comments are not conducive to forming an informed opinion on the matter aka you’re all over the place. Auckland Council decided that it was best to remove the pine forest in one single operation based on expert opinion. Until I see any other reliable fact and expert opinion that seems a fairly sound decision to me, as a fairly neutral (read: objective) observer who does not live in that particular backyard.
That report painted a rather negative picture of the pine forest and the state it was in. This seems to be confirmed after the felling, e.g., as seen it the photos in that ‘propaganda’ piece. Of course, it is fairly easy (and lazy) to stick that label on it because you don’t like the message and/or because you disagree with it – both seem to apply to you.
The photo's in the propaganda piece showed a small number of trees out of a stand of just under 200. They were cherry picked to suit that propaganda, and even then unless you are an expert in assessing photo's of trees, they don't say much.
I’ve already said that I’m not an arborist and neither are you, by the sounds of it.
I look at the photos, see rot and holes (some rather large), and read the accompanying text and it makes for a rather different story than the one you have been spinning here. The Benson report did also mention the poor health of quite a number of trees before the felling and presumably those were among the ones that we can see for ourselves in those photos taken after the felling.
Was the Benson report also ‘propaganda’?
You are relying on the text in an Auckland Council propaganda piece and photo's of a handful of trees. I'm relying to the opinions of expert arboriculturalists Chris Benton and Craig Webb.
Your wheels are spinning fast. You omit that I also rely on the Benson report to which you so kindly linked. It was a very interesting read, thank you so much!
Is this the same Benson we’re talking about:
Andrew Benson. Ph.D., BSc, FdSc Urban tree ecophysiologist
Sounds like he is an “expert arboriculturalist”, wouldn’t you agree?
"Sounds like he is an “expert arboriculturalist”, wouldn’t you agree?"
Absolutely. So let's accept his worst case scenario that 25 needed to be removed. And let's accept that they need to removed now (which he didn't say, but indulge me). Even accepting all of that, then a developing native forest of an estimated 15,000 plants was destroyed to make way for planting several thousand less when there was at least one alternative. Stupid.
Have you read the Benton report yet?
Your
strawmenhypotheticals are not useful; we need facts and expert opinion, both of which are in short supply. We do, however, have no shortage of opinion pieces, some of which you prefer to label as propaganda. You have already declared your agenda in this context, which is appreciated, but my agenda is to come to a mutually agreed discernible truth through robust debate here on TS.I have not seen the Benton opinion piece. The Benson report looks solid with references to previous information, which can be tracked and verified. This makes it the most reliable source of information for me, at present.
"Your
strawmenhypotheticals are not useful; we need facts and expert opinion, both of which are in short supply. "I have provided facts and expert opinion. I’ve also provided you with access to the Benton report. It’s now up to you to go and read it. In the meantime, it seems clear you were not aware there was a native forest under the pine trees. I hope that extra information may help you to understand why I am arguing my point.
Edit: sorry just found this:
“From my assessment, I have formed an opinion that the vast majority of pine trees in the forest pose a
low or very low risk of harm. This is primarily due to the absence of actual targets, or the very
infrequent occupancy rates.” That’s from the peer review of the Bento report, conducted by Craig Webb., Let me know your email address and I’ll send the original, then you’ll have two expert reports to read.
are you ok if I email you at the address you are using to comment here? As an Editor here I can see it in the back end.
You did not provide me with anything but your reckons and one link to a report by an expert who assessed the health of the pine forest as poor and deteriorating and who offered basically two scenarios for Auckland Council to consider. Auckland Council decided on one, which you don’t like. BTW, the Benson report focussed on the pine forest.
"You did not provide me with anything but your reckons and one link to a report by an expert who assessed the health of the pine forest as poor and deteriorating and who offered basically two scenarios for Auckland Council to consider."
Rubbish. The report found that 74% of the pines were of acceptable or tolerable risk. You haven't read the other two reports, but you're satisfied with photo's of a handful of trees. I'll leave it others to decide whose more credible.
Absolute nonsense from you, again.
There’s only one expert report publically available: the Benson report. This was commissioned in 2020 and I have read it, as it is the only one available to me. The so-called Chris Benton opinion was made in 2019. Neither this not the alleged review by Craig Webb are available to the public and the readers of this site. You want us/me to take your word for it and trust you and then, on top of that, agree with you, obviously??
Why did Andrew Benson not refer once to the opinion by Benton and review by Webb? Did he also not have access to it? Did he know of it? It just doesn’t make sense for Benson to leave this out of his apparently comprehensive section on previous information, IMO.
"This was commissioned in 2020 and I have read it, as it is the only one available to me. "
That's lazy. I told you I emailed the Chris Benton report to The Standard, so you could easily access it. I've also provided a link to a piece by Steve Abel, and there have been comments here by others involved with WSF. The truth is out there.
Wrong. I have no access to it, as I have no access to the site’s e-mail. Other readers of the site don’t have either. You’re making lazy assumptions. Steve Abel is someone who I could trust on this topic, but he also refers to [the] unavailable reports. Your interpretation of the Benson report was severely wanting – I won’t comment on other commenters here.
I'm busy so not going to chase this up now, but when I googled the other day I found more than one report on the WS forest.
I do agree that the report being referred to that isn't online needs to be made publicly available, which I will do this week.
I've emailed Weka the Benton report and the Webb peer review. When he/she posts them, you will have access to balance what you already have. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this from Chris Benton's report:
Other professional arborist observations of the Forest and Stand
24. I have observed, out of professional interest, the Forest and Stand nearly every day (except for rain days), seven days a week for approximately 17 years as I have walked in the forest every day (where possible) during that time. I have taken it upon
myself to enter and observe the forest immediately following large storm events to observed any trees that may have fallen or been damaged. These observations have allowed me to form clear opinions on the reasons why trees within the stand have failed. Those visits meant that I have been able to observe failure redispositions before and after failure has occurred. This puts me in a unique position to review the status of the Stand vis-à-vis deterioration. While a great deal of observable deterioration within the Forest and Stand is unconcerning as it appears natural. I have been concerned with what I consider to be unnecessary tree works and unsupportable tree removals over the last 10 years or so.
Lovely, but changes nothing.
Is this the Benton report in question?
https://www.validtreerisk.com/resources/Documents/Case%20Studies/Western%20Springs%20Pines/TRAQ%20-%20Western%20Springs%20Pines.pdf
It appears so, thank you (and no thanks to that other commenter who’s not been forthcoming with a link). I’ve got other things piling up now, but will read it later, with considerable interest.
Do you happen to have the Webb review too?
https://www.validtreerisk.com/resources/Documents/Case%20Studies/Western%20Springs%20Pines/QTRA%20-%20Western%20Springs%20Pines.pdf
To Solkta
"Is this the Benton report in question?"
YES!!! Thank you, you are a gem.
I just googled 'Chris Benton report western springs pines' and it was the second listing with the first being the Abel article.
Hi Solkta
Thanks for the Craig Webb link. Webb also did a peer review of the Benton report – I've emailed that to Weka.
tbf, this applies the other way too. We have conflicting reports and conflicting positions. I'm not seeing a good reason to trust the council just because they're the council.
Andrew Benson prepared a report for Maureen Glassey Auckland Council in October 2020 – I don’t know who the Reviewer (Sean McBride) is/was. The report looks solid to me, not being an expert in the field [no pun], and it appears to be consistent with that Council piece I linked to. I have not seen any other independent expert opinion.
Neither you nor I are experts, which is why we can only rely on the opinions of those who are.
Even the VALID risk assessment report commissioned by Council stated that 74% of the Pines were of acceptable or tolerable risks.
To be fair, the reports are only conflicting by degrees. Both agree that a significant majority of the pines could remain. So let's accept the worst case scenario that 25 needed to be removed. Even accepting that (and I don't for reasons outlined in Steve Abel's article), then a developing native forest of an estimated 15,000 plants was destroyed to make way for planting several thousand less. It's madness.
"are you ok if I email you at the address you are using to comment here?"
Yes, of course.
This article by Steve Abel is a good explanation of what happened at WSF. He describes the wanton destruction of the native understorey, and also provides information on a 'Plan B' the community proposed that was rejected by Council.
"The core issue was the pine forest…"
Between the comment you were confused by, and you're realisation that there was a native forest at WS, there were a total of 9 other comments about the native forest.
Your comments are not conducive to forming an informed opinion on the matter aka you’re all over the place.
You will believe that, because you have no knowledge of the site, and no desire to learn anything about it.
Auckland Council decided that it was best to remove the pine forest in one single operation based on expert opinion.
You've only read on 'expert opinion', and that found that 74% of the pines could remain in place.
Until I see any other reliable fact and expert opinion that seems a fairly sound decision to me…
You've came in part way through a conversation, formed an opinion without understanding the physical dynamics of the site (you didn't even know there was a thriving native forest being destroyed) or bothering to read the variety of expert opinion available. That's just lazy, but it's typical of those who support this madness.
Personally I've found your comments interesting and informative. You and others have made excellent arguments for your position and provided a lot of resources to look at for those that are interested.
Sometimes conversations get confused once the the threads are long (hard to follow and see what people are referring to and what's already been said). I don't think you have to keep defending yourself here, lots of what you have shared is a good contribution to TS and I'm grateful for it.
Thanks.
Wrong. I have read the report by Benson (2020).
So, now the opinion by Benson is an ‘expert opinion’ after we agreed he’s or at least like an expert arboriculturalist!? Benson commented on the state of the pine forest, past, present, and future, and it was not good. The number of pine trees had gone down an average of 15 trees per year since 1988. You keep on ignoring that fact that does not suit you.
The Benson report was about the pine trees. The decision was about the pine trees and to remove them. No other expert opinions on the pine trees are available to me or to the other readers of this site. That’s neither madness nor laziness. If you want us to trust you then you’ll have to do better than that – your comments so far have not convinced me at all and they come across as biased.
"I have read the report by Benson (2020)."
yes but that's all you've read. Other than a Council puff piece you naievely accept as gospel.
"The number of pine trees had gone down an average of 15 trees per year since 1988."
You do know that forests age, right? That trees don't live forever? That they need managing?
"That’s neither madness nor laziness. "
In your case it is lazyness. You have access to other material. You can do better.
Wrong. I also read the opinion piece by Steve Abel. We already know what you think about article on the Council website with its inconvenient photos that to me appear to be consistent with the Benson report. That’s neither naïve belief nor gospel, but I see you have to resort to cheap & lazy labels again.
Yup, and so did Benson and he knows a lot more about trees than you and I ever will. He suggested felling of all pine trees in one single operation to Auckland Council as one possible option. He was adamant that 51 trees needed to go regardless. That’s prudent advice, IMO.
I have? I checked my inbox and it is not there. Why not? Because you did not send it to me but to The Standard, which is not me. Are you going to send it to all readers of this site? Why is not publically available in the first place, the Benson report is? People could have leaked the Benton & Webb documents …
"with its inconvenient photos that to me appear to be consistent with the Benson report. "
There it is again. The photo's are of a handful of trees, most of which show little or no deterioration.
"Yup, and so did Benson and he knows a lot more about trees than you and I ever will. He suggested felling of all pine trees in one single operation to Auckland Council as one possible option. He was adamant that 51 trees needed to go regardless. That’s prudent advice, IMO."
As one possible option. What he didn't suggest was destroying a thriving urban native forest in the process.
"I also read the opinion piece by Steve Abel. "
When? It must have been since your comments yesterday that showed you didn't know about the native understorey.
You conflate absence of evidence and evidence of absence. The focus was on the pine trees and I stayed focussed on that. I failed to read your mind and make the same mental leap as you, which I’ve already acknowledged, which has got nothing to do with my knowledge of the undergrowth in the pine forest. Stop making lazy assumptions that are off the mark by a long shot.
" I failed to read your mind"
No, you failed to read the comments. Would you have paid more attention if they were accompanied by a Council letterhead and glossy photo's?
A view from Te Pane o Mataoho
‘Massacre on the Maunga?’ ∙ elocal Digital Edition – March 2020 (#228)
I was driving home alone Mt Wellington highway this afternoon looking at Maungarei and thought about the idea your group wants to transition to native slowly and that cutting crappy pine destroys what is underneath.
I can tell you what is underneath, gorse! Yet another import.
I'm no expert but I can also tell you with some confidence they is no way native regeneration would happen with that pine there. There is however a glimmer of hope natives will strike under the gorse now the pine has gone.
Muttonbird you are wrong.
Using gorse to regenerate native ecologies. It's not a glimmer, it's now proven strategy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VZSJKbzyMc&ab_channel=HappenFilms
Please educate yourself. Even just read the comments in this conversation and follow the links. The idea that natives can't regenerate under pines comes from plantation pines. It's an erroneous idea. When pines are not in plantation, lots of other things will grow with them. I'm a few minutes drive from a pine and kanuka forest.
You can see more examples in this post and the comments under it,
https://thestandard.org.nz/what-if-we-let-the-wilding-pines-grow/
Thanks for addressing these issues Weka.
In fact natives do grow in pine plantations and Kiwis can and do live in pine forests.
I have had conversations with a past president of the Forest Owners Ass who is a committed native forest regenerator about this. There is also a very good article about pine plantation myths which was published in NZ Geographic some years ago before the fundamentalist nativists took over and politicised NZ's environment with tree racism and obsession for demonizing habitat plants.
First question is always "what exactly are these plants doing? " Don't make assumptions and suspend your cultural beliefs, we all have them,
Nice story, will see if I can track down the NZG piece.
It's been so good to have all these new voices here in the past few days bring into the new perspectives. Completely agree about assumptions and cultural beliefs.
I think this will be the one:
Pine forest natives | New Zealand Geographic (nzgeo.com)
Well, I am talking about one particular stand of something pine on the steep side of a volcano, my volcano, Maungarei, which I use every day.
I'm well aware gorse provides nursery to other plants which is why I mentioned it. Perhaps that was part of the thinking when TMA commissioned the work done.
And I don't hate pine trees, their cones fill my fireplaces. Love a good oak tree too as long as I don't have to clean up after it.
Hi there,
Gorse is a potent nitrogen fixer, with root systems that stabilise soils. Where you see gorse, you see soil asking for repair.
You also seen a snapshot in time, where ‘imported’ plants are doing a powerful job in the here and now for the land. The work they do now prepares the soil to once again support her endemic species, oft displaced by dramatic changes created by humans.
Yes, Pine and Gorse are imported. But so are you and I. The first peoples of this land acknowledge and document their own sacred migration in their lore, and there is deep learning available in humbly listening to the histories of Tangata Whenua.
Hatred for particular species is rooted in a colonial mindset. This often manifests in Aotearoa as a ‘land management’ perspective. It has been my humble observation that for many of European descent, a rejection of non-native plant species is a form of internalised racism and apologism. The feelings behind this must be honored and taken seriously. There is pain here.
Unchecked, these emotion-driven attitudes lead to the justification of horrific destruction. The common thread between what happened at Western Springs, Canal Road and the three Maunga that had their non-native trees stripped was the death of thousands of natives – trees, saplings, birds, frogs, skinks, eel, insects, fungi are more. Without habitat, life ends.
It appears this mass ecocide was worth it so this city can visually virtue signal.
While it is inconvenient for our minds, biological exchange and the evolution of ecosystems is an ongoing reality across the globe. We can argue and polarise, or we can be in relationship to the land and learn from the repair work she is doing. If we truly want to support native biodiversity, the first place we need to work may well be within our own attitudes.
Oh really? Thats a pretty interesting statement. Im kinda glad you said it was only your "humble observation".
I'd hate to think you were promulgating it as more….
makes sense to me, although I see it more as Pākehā trying to find a way out of colonial guilt as well as rejection of our ancestors. To be clear, the point here is hatred of introduced species not love of natives. I've seen people direct hate at forests because they weren't native. That's nuts.
Maybe thats your perspective too. So thats 2 of you. Cant say I have ever seen it. Might be the people we Associate with/Know….
Oh also Graeme and I had noted wilding problems up Mountains
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-18-09-2022/#comment-1911063
And I also noted here today dangerous rotting Poplars.
Comment 9
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-18-09-2022/#comment-1911303
Note Dangerous.
could be. I used to see it a lot in new age circles. It goes hand in hand with ideas about spiritual purity.
But as we talked about the other day, nativism is reasonably common in NZ and manifests as people that believe that non-natives should be removed, full stop. This is happening all over NZ. Is it happening in the projects you are involved with? Are non-natives being removed even if there's no immediate reason to?
Hi Weka. Thanks for clarify and I do think we are in the same Green Mindspace. Wouldnt want that to change…
Cant say I have ever been to near "New Agers" ( They maybe nice enough..but not really sure : )
Oh re Native/Non Native…I did say the other day…I like my Fruit trees, like Oaks, and other Beautiful trees. Not so keen on Sycamores…(as you'll know if from Dunedin)…and the Wilding creeping death (to snow tussock and its Biodiversity) on Qtowns Mountain tops..as Graeme and I linked…And the Lombardy Polars.
Anyway…I gotta do stuff. I always read you and Roberts ..and DB Browns comments Re Permaculture with interest.
Cheers PLA.
When you come back let's have a conversation about the forest on the edge of the town belt in the Leith Valley. Sycamores grow there among the natives. Should they be removed? When? How?
Nativists would say they should all be taken out now. Permaculturists and regenerators would say, what role are the sycamores playing currently? What are the impacts of removal en masse? Impacts of selective logging? Impacts of doing nothing? What other options are available?
Is it possible to create a fully native ecosystem in that place given the number of seeding sycamores in the area? Does it matter if it is a mixed forest? Can we create a fully native ecosystem in another place and leave this existing forest to get on with its business?
"Cant say I have ever seen it."
That surprises me. I can say it's rife in Auckland. At the Waitematā Local Board meeting that finally decided to remove the pines at Western Springs Forest, one local board member (who has British parentage) explained that her reason for voting to remove the pines was her own guilt about colonisation. It seemed a very strange reason to vote to destroy a native understory containing more plants than have been subsequently replanted.
I spoke to this below. I've had a lot of long conversations over the last three years with NZers of European descent about this and how it feels to them. There are a lot of people who feel that they have to reject non-natives, and it is an extension of self-rejection.
Personally, I would not assume to know what any other individual feels, but I do feel a responsibility to bring into the conversation psychological factors that are at play societally.
Its important to hear ofcourse, that that is not true for you, because that is valid as well.
"Nativists would say they should all be taken out now"
They might not 🙂
Nativists might also be willing to play the long game, using sycamore as an "interim state" tree that can ensure the success of their eventual aim for 100% native. It's easy to ascribe thoughtlessness to the "others" 🙂
These ideas are very complex. Imagine if the "exotic" was a possum.
My feeling is that most problems don't have definitive answers; the genie is out of the bottle and from here on, we scramble to find the best of a bad bunch solution, and even that will be constantly subject to change.
I'm also not so sure that "colonial guilt" is a useful model to use. I expect that at a deeper level, people are confused/disturbed/guilt-ridden as the result of a wider cultural disconnection from our earliest ancestors who didn't kill without thinking and were much more finely tuned to other living things. As modern humans, we are complicit with so much destruction and brutalising of nature (driven on an earth-smothering road, lately?) that at a level we know we are brutes and can't easily be anything else.
My thoughts echo yours, SOWC. Part of the problem is the habit of instant gratification, which doesn't translate well when it comes to establishing forests. Succession; planting establishment crops then rolling forward with successional sowings/plantings etc. seems beyond the imagination of most people and it surely is something that has to be studied hard before the penny drops, for most people and certainly, organisations. In this instance, it sounds (from a great distance) as though several stages of forest establishment were already passed and the clearance will have set the process back to square one, so to speak. Disappointing. Despite the reference to colonialism, it seems to me that there are good learnings to be gleaned from very old European cultures that employed successional forest management practices. Maori may have, but the forests here are of a different nature to those elsewhere in the world, so employing certain techniques might not be traditional here. Coppicing, for example, may not have flourished here, as it did in Europe. Nor pollarding. Terrapreta. Seedballs. Nightsoil.
Personally, I blame agriculture for the mindset that destroys trees. And it's evil cousin, civilisation 🙂
Hi Robert!
Thank you so much for your lovely comment!
Firstly, huge gratitude for centering European indigenous practices and land care. This is pivotal to understand. We all come from a memory of living close to the land. Every single one of us. The differences are related to time, and how long ago our families/tribes were separated from place.
The purpose in discussing colonization is connected deeply to the rationale presented early in the piece for the removal of trees off the Maunga. It was clearly presented as a decolonisation process.
To my mind and heart, the question naturally becomes ‘what is decolonisation’? Is there a way to do it with compassion, where everyone, including the living world has a seat at the table? Where wounds are treated according to need but nobody is vilified or left behind?
Yup. Agriculture/civilization etc. All create distance. There’s no going back, but here we stand at a pivotal time where our behaviours have caught up with us as a species.
The best possible outcome of a decolonial project would be to bring people together to care for the living world again. What is unfurling with the Maunga so far is antithetical, and the polarization in the community demonstrates this.
Thank you again, appreciate your wisdom.
"Is there a way to do it with compassion, where everyone, including the living world has a seat at the table? Where wounds are treated according to need but nobody is vilified or left behind?"
Sounds like this is not an option in the present situation. That's not surprising, as there are complex streams, cultural, ideological, personal, racial etc. flowing this way and that.
Looking more widely (land use across Aotearoa/the wide world) a similar challenge simmers. Perhaps issues like the one here will serve a test-cases and we will be able to offer our findings/accomodations to the world; somebody has to keep at it till it's resolved.
To my mind, this is the essential work. It's very challenging and very interesting. And a lot is riding on us resolving it 🙂
This is the challenge of our time, to revive nuance and work towards a cohesive human and humane approach.
We may not get there. But again, one has to know what they can live with. I know I have to try.
And trees are so much better than people ❤️
They're certainly stoic.
Except for those, such as elms, that strategically drop limbs:
"Elm hateth man
And waiteth"
🙂
Nope, no loons.
/
you know better than this. If you want to argue they're wrong, then make the argument. If you want to do ad homs, then there's a limit on how much that will be tolerate.
I've seen enough of the Gulf island reserves to know what's possible so I support Tūpuna Maunga Authority plans to return Tāmaki Makaurau maunga to something like their pre-European state.
So AFAIC, there's no argument to be had with a pack of well heeled nimbys, or indeed the likes of Brash's mob nor the stetson wearing twit they seem to appeal to. A majority want maunga replanted so suck it up, kiddies.
And then along comes this fucking twit and her reckons about peoples motivations opposing said pack of well heeled nimbys.
There's no argument, there's only derision.
"I've seen enough of the Gulf island reserves to know what's possible so I support Tūpuna Maunga Authority plans to return Tāmaki Makaurau maunga to something like their pre-European state."
You're buying into a series of myths.
To return to a "pre-European state", Ōwairaka, to take just one maunga, would need to be stripped of all of it's trees, native and exotic. Is that what you support?
And if by 'Gulf island reserves, you're referring to Tiri Matangi, you might want to educate yourself.
“A majority want maunga replanted”
Yes, so do we. There is no need to remove the exotics, they are either providing canopy cover, or are not in the same proximity to the proposed plantings.
” there’s no argument to be had…”
However you characterise people you disagree with, you’re not putting up any kind of coherent argument to support the removal of the trees, so in that sense, you are missing out on engagement.
The authority also retained advice from arbourists. It's not as if they came up with removing exotics first on their own. But the whole thing has become a flashpoint for anxieties about whose expertise counts.
"It's not as if they came up with removing exotics first on their own."
Actually, it's worse than that The decision was not made by the Authority, but by one individual without reference to either the Authority members or the wider public. I quote from the Court of Appeal judgement:
[[107] Mr Majurey’s evidence can be contrasted with that of Mr Christopher Parkinson, who was a member of the Tūpuna Maunga Authority from its inception to the end of 2019. Mr Parkinson at the relevant time was a board member of the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Reserves Board. He was appointed by the Council as a representative on the Tūpuna Maunga Authority for two three-year terms. In his affidavit, he noted that while the Tūpuna Maunga Authority had agreed the Annual Operational Plan, the documents comprising that plan did not contain any detail of the proposed removal of the trees. He said that he had attended all of the hui and prior workshops held by the Tūpuna Maunga Authority, aside from “a few absences” both during the formation of the IMP and after that. He said that to the best of his knowledge, there had been no discussion of the removal of all of the exotic trees on Ōwairaka at any of the hui or workshops in which he took part.
[98] There is no written record of the decision to remove the 345 exotic trees from Ōwairaka, nor to do so over a short period of time. The Judge found that the decision was made at some time in the period of 9 August to 11 October 2018, and was made by Mr Turoa on behalf of the Tūpuna Maunga Authority.
I am not aware of any single arboricultural expert who supports the single stage removal of the exotics on ecological or environmental grounds.
it’s a requirement of this site to provide a link when copy and pasting (or an explicit citation if the quote is not online). This is for a range of reasons related to keeping debate robust eg people may want to see context. Can you please supply the link now.
Weka has already asked for a link, so where is it?
Farmers retain advice from experts and our rivers are dying.
yes a flash point. With a fair amount of denialism from some progressives.
Its not immediately clear who the twit is in your commentary, but on the off chance its me I'll respond here.
My suppositions on internalized racism and the transference of that onto non-native plants come from many heartfelt conversations over the last three years with New Zealanders of European descent. It takes a lot for them to be vulnerable to the degree required to face such deep conditioning. Consistently, they share that how they feel about non-native plants is an extension of how they feel they ought to about themselves. This isn't something to take lightly, or mock.
In referring to people as 'kiddos', 'nimbys' and suggesting people must 'suck up' anything if it is not their choice to do so, I am hearing a defensiveness and aggression.
It is possible for us to disagree. I respect your choice to support the TMA. I am not asking for the same in return. However, I also don't believe I or anyone else needs to tolerate being ridiculed for their stance or belief.
Wishing you well.
Last time I removed an exotic (not counting this time turning privet into a food forest) it was a large sweetgum with heart-rot. It endangered my greenhouse and neighbours house so it had to go.
I used the logs to make garden surrounds, to landscape slopes, and to grow fungi. I used the mulch to fill in the garden surrounds, and I planted herbs, spices, flowers, vegetables and other trees in them (lemon, lime, lemonade, olive, feijoa, cherry guava, titoki, kowhai…) using mostly just the resources of the one 'fallen' tree (some cardboard, manure, rockdust and a bit of lime – certainly helps).
Western Springs was imbecilic. I weed pines and gorse at times when up there because, surprise surprise, they are popping up in the gaps as they do, but! – not in the bush. Unfortunately, they removed a large chunk of the bush and there's a massive gap. A team of arborists could have done a significantly better job than those forestry types. But now it is locals weeding and long may that continue before council turn up with more bloody cides.
There seems to be a lot more doers than thinkers involved in many of these projects. The eagerness to be seen to be doing something overriding the need to be doing it right. The machines turn up, the chemicals, it's all over rover.
But what is right or wrong with trees?
Natives can take care of themselves and local wildlife, in turn taking care of us for relatively little input (via ecosystem services of flood and drought mitigation, pollination, air cleaning, oxygen provision, cooling, pollutant reduction, seed provision, fuel, fibre, food…). Exotics that aren't spreading – who cares really, nice to have the diversity. Exotics that are invasive… they'll cost a fortune and wipe out diversity. So define the exotics.
Keeping rampant exotics in check can be hugely demanding in time and resources. Fine for me where I can steward the land, coppicing and growing logs, poles, fuel… from privet. But taking on wilding pines now, not tolerating or trying to just check them, could stop a huge amount of problems down the line (wildfires for a start). As for other trees…
What trees? Exotics don't belong in native bush, but trying to knock exotics out of Auckland parks seems a bit daft, unless they're problematic – unless they're bloody Tory trees or something!
If they got to drop them, turn them into fertile ground for natives.
Todays protests all get counter-protestors. It's a wonder we get anything done. Everyone screaming to do it right, no left, no!!!
What is right? And what is left after all the fighting?
One would hope common sense.
If invasive – stop it reproducing or remove it. If not invasive and not endangering anything, leave it be or at least utilise it. My 3c (inflation).
In Southland, the rampant exotic that suppresses native tree establishment is…pasture grass!
Bloody exotic pest!!
🙂
You are lucky your neighbors don't complain about the privet. From memory you are in Auckland and i am not sure about the rules there, but Northland Regional Council has a bylaw about privet in that it must be removed if within 50m of a dwelling of someone who's health is affected. And also within 10m of a property where the occupier is trying to eradicate it.
Council rules on privet. Ermmm. My house backs on to an entire forest of Ligustrum lucidum on council land – in mid city. Slowly it's being thinned and the natives under it, given the light gaps, are thriving. Other weeds have needed more constant control there, jasmine, tradescantia… to let the native nursery take place.
You kill them by leaving a trunk and pulling the suckers off every few months for up to 2 years. This requires attention to the land. It only needs minutes per tree but the landowner needs to be paying attention. Or you can use tons of poison and hope for the best. Poison mostly works but some regrow.
These trees generate a lot of fungi when you drop them without poisons. The fungi in turn build gorgeous topsoil. Coppiced, they make good garden poles in 1 year. Hot non-sparking firewood size in 2, fungi cultivation logs in 3. The flowers have medicine that modulates blood glucose. The berries feed birds – chooks love em but unfortunately that spreads them.
Not all privet are equal. I just dropped some 10m trees of the L lucidum. I've found many uses for it, much to the horror of others whom know two fifths of fuck all about it.
The problem is the solution. One day there will be no privet here as they will have provided the impetus and biomass to enable a thriving food forest (and adjacent native forest) in their wake.
"Can you please supply the link now."
Yes, of course. 0f7fd3e7-192f-4904-9149-9b9558303850.pdf (justice.govt.nz)
thank-you.
Bro, you've used the term, "virtue signal".
That itself is a signal.
Here's another link I was looking for.
Pine forest natives | New Zealand Geographic (nzgeo.com)
We’re only losing because NATO is better than us!
And then they turn on the guy pointing out the absurdity of their argument that it’s okay Russia is retreating, because an American author and military commentator was there.
https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1570835842255704064
But it is an open proxy war.
I that's what it takes.
https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1571137121393733632
In the city of Izyum, liberated by the Ukrainian military during a large-scale counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region, a mass grave was discovered. According to the prosecutor of the region Oleksandr Filchakov, 445 graves of civilians were found – and another mass grave of Ukrainian servicemen. Some bodies testify to the use of torture. Exhumation work continues. Meduza shows the main photos of the 205th day of the war.
google translate (NSF sensitive souls)
Just in case anyone was wondering about the Q and the + in addition to the T.
Despite images appearing on social media, there was a reluctance to accept that these were actual images of a Canadian high school teacher at work.
https://twitter.com/hippojuicefilm/status/1570173548571893761?s=20&t=XP7qAQpfIL7E87K-VZ2skA
Unfortunately, not only have these images been verified, the school has now issued an EDI statement, confirming they will continue to expose other school members to this man's sexual fetishes. Effectively, forcing participation without consent.
The Teacher is brave, stunning and most marginalized and the students just have to suck on that huge transcock if they find this person not brave, stunning and most marginalized. Never mind the OSH problem. But this is Canada, and this is for whom Self ID was made. I can't wait for this to be here in our streets, schools, and just everywhere. So brave, so stunning and so so marginalized.
Also no one would ever think that this would not be a women, as no one would be able to tell without checking on their genitals.
I'm sure it's bigoted of me to be somewhat unconcerned about the back pain that may result from lugging 16kg prosthetics around all day.
I now await with a mixture of both anticipation and dread, the same defence of a woman teacher trotting around in a Flash Gordon outfit, with similarly exaggerated male genitalia.
What's that, it will be unlikely, as there is a sex differential in sexual paraphilias?
Who would've thought.
Their hair is in their face, they are not wearing googles, their silicon tits are about to be sawed of. This person is a walking OSH case. Any back pain from their extra large silicon tits should not be accepted as a 'work place accident' after all they ordered, paid and strapped them on.
The kids though. No rights to say anything at all. Made part in this teachers affirmation fetish without consent, unless going to school now to receive an education is now consenting to participating in the teachers fetish of objectifying womanhood, and woman body parts.
No doubt I'm still in the dogbox…but someone needs to point out the very obvious workshop health and safety issues going on in this footage.
Flowing hair, long sleeves and whatever are those growths on that teacher's chest…tut tut…would not be allowed around my workshop power tools.
The mitre saw is bad enough… but just imagine that hair in a drill press, or those growths around a table saw. Eeek!
[Yes, so why don’t you get yourself out of the dog box? You know how. This is becoming more than tedious, so this is your last chance – Incognito]
Mod note
I hope you do get out soon Rosemary.
Good H&S points.
The mod note about the dog box is here
.https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-18-08-2022/#comment-1906470
My suggestion is you retract your inference that the study said covid vax caused heart attacks, and move on.
You do not have to go very far to find tens of thousands of people who have been vaccine injured one way or another – and I am one.
We did what we were assured was the right thing – and now we're being told to fuck off and not embarrass the Big Pharma establishment.
I don't quite fathom the need to have everyone agree on interpretation, especially re medical data, but I am sorry to hear of your vaccine injury.
Have you had any improvement on that front?
Thank you for asking. At present the symptoms are mild – but the antibody test that formally diagnoses it was not. Future uncertain.
Suffice to say I am doing all I can to improve my odds. Radical no stress being one of them 🙂
Uncertainty can be more stressful sometimes.
Given the unprecedented number of vaccinated around the globe, your situation is likely to be shared by many.
An effective government response to LongCovid and vaccine is needed.
How and when this will manifest is the question.
Let's say that in another year's time 50% of the NZ population has had covid (2.5m). If the LC rate is 10% of infections (more likely higher than that), that's 250,000 people with ongoing symptoms. Let's say 25% of those are serious to the point where people can't work or can only work part time. That's 62,500 people that need health care and financial support as well as support with life tasks like childcare or cleaning their house.
Current SLP numbers are about 90,000 (long term people unable to work due to disability).
What I want to know is what is likely to be happening at year 5. Or year 10. If subsequent covid infections increase risk of LC, are we heading for most people eventually getting LC? What happens at the point that there are more people with LC unable to work than those able to keep society functioning? Or even running the health system? Mostly I want to know what is going on in people's minds that we aren't talking about this as a major crisis on the horizon.
I'm not going to dispute your numbers. They look fairly conservative to me.
I'm more than certain, we will never know the true figure of vaccine injuries though. We have to have a sincere intention to identity and record those, anId we still have a focus on denigrating those who did not get vaccinated.
I'm sure that there are conversations going on in various ways about both Long Covid, and vaccine injuries. The discussion however, is not being led or explored by our Ministry of Health, politicians or commentators.
As always, when health is compromised, those who suffer the most are unlikely to be in a position to advocate strongly.
I don't know what the answer is here. Perhaps getting in touch with the Ministry to indicate concern or send a OIA request.
I'm not impressed with their medical management on a few issues. The fact that they will drop the ball here as well, is expected rather than a surprise.
Those in power who ignore the impact, are doing the usual. Avoiding that which doesn't have a clear answer.
Hope you are o.k. Red Logix
All the best ,too you Red.
Ill second that. I miss his ( more regular) commentary.
I don't know how many people have been vaccine injured, and as far as I know no-one does. Because we don't have robust processes for tracking this. Maybe it's tens of thousands globally, ranging from low level reactions to serious disability causing injuries to death. The latter being rare.
Not news to me or many others who were trying to talk about this from the start. The debate on TS when the vaccine was being developed split between those with high faith (vax reactions are very rare, trust the authorities) and those with strong feelings that vax is wrong and who denied the value of the vaccine. Missing was the idea that vaccines do cause damage but the overall damage is less than not vaccinating against covid, and what that means for the individuals vs the collective.
I've been trying to have these conversations on TS for a very long time, long before covid.
“I've been trying to have these conversations on TS for a very long time, long before Covid”
Taking any drug is a utilitarian calculation of risk. I have had unpleasant reactions to some anti-hypertensive drugs – but they have undoubtedly lowered my blood pressure. The reactions are not life-threatening, whereas a stroke or heart failure might be. So I take the risk – and fortunately the risk and reward are almost entirely private to me, apart from my responsibility to be here and keep supporting a narrow circle of immediate family.
An infectious disease widens that circle of responsibility to include everyone else in society, most of whom we've never met and never will. Getting vaccinated is an act of solidarity as well as self-interest. But the problem with utilitarian calculations at the whole-population level, is that harms and benefits are not equally distributed. There is no way round this dilemma – as anyone who has watched their own child being vaccinated will know. Sometimes faith is a useful habit.
good summation.
Pragmatically I can't see how we could have managed without vaccinating against covid. There will be people harmed by this, but it will be considerably less than those harmed by covid and LC. There's also the flatten the curve issue and impact on the health system.
We could however have done better in looking after people who had averse reactions to the vaccine, and those who were affected by the mandate. And likewise, those who get LC. We are still really bad at this. See Molly's comment above as well.
True, although it irks when it's used by rationalists who then deny they are using it. I just wish people would be more honest about it because then we could account for it and get better at dealing with the downsides.
I just have a feeling that the impacts of getting Covid ie without a vaccine or even with it are spread over many more people than vaccine injury. The impact of Long Covid, even on the vaccinated is a whole different subject.
I know of only one person who has had vaccine injury and that is Redlogix. Many of us had sore arms and aches but these were fleeting, for some no worse than the annual flu injection.
Those of my friends and acquaintances who are still suffering from the after effects of having had Covid as vaccinated people are many more. What would it have been like had we not had the vaccine, many of us would be dead I think. I suspect this view is being played out/expressed all around the world. We may have had to accept a less than perfect result from the vaccine because this virus came upon us so quickly.
That's how I see it too. Which sucks for the individuals who have adverse reactions to the vaccine, and yes this is the price we are paying. Which is why I think we should be looking after those people and we just aren't.
Yes I agree. I know several people who would be classed as having long Covid, am suspecting I fall into this category. Constant tiredness and soreness on the soles of my feet that the Dr says may be neurological…..
One friend has newly acquired asthma, another has her Doctor wondering about hiatus hernia like symptoms or digestive symptoms that developed immediately after Covid. If all these things don't pass then there will be impacts on us and the health system and for those of us still in the workforce on our earning capacity and productiveness, then on the earning capacity and productiveness in all facets of life in our country.
All this and the future for those who were vaccine injured is lost among the BAU, prosperity churchers and silly anti mask enthusiasts.
[deleted]
I did not infer the study said the Pfizer product causes heart attacks.
The study found that the Pfizer shot can cause myocarditis, (possibly at a much higher rate than we were warned), and that there were measurable changes in the hearts (based on changes from a wide range of baseline readings) of many study participants.
[You have not responded to the original Mod note nor have you retracted it, but just repeated your misleading interpretation and extrapolation of a manuscript that has not been peer-reviewed yet and that is based on very small numbers, which you both deny and confirm. Your science illiteracy is compounded by your strong negative bias and your stubbornness – it is hard to escape the feeling that there’s an element of deliberation in your ambiguity and confusion.
You’ve had several chances and it is clear that you will simply repeat, rinse, repeat, ad nauseam, which is your MO here on a number of topics. Of course, after a ban you will continue this and I’ll continue moderating you for the same reasons and behaviour as I see fit, which is what you expected and thus what you’ll receive. TS readers deserve better than gaslighting from commenters. I’ll move you to Black List for a month – Incognito]
Mod note
Incog will deal with your comment in Pending, but I did want to address this,
I don't think you did either, but the problem is your comment was ambiguous. All you have to do is acknowledge that the study didn't say that and clarify what you actually meant. Simply and without adding a whole bunch of other stuff. If you had done that at the time, you wouldn't be about to get a ban.
All that is happening here is you've been moderated and haven't responded and are about to get a ban because of that. If you want to avoid that, you can just do as I suggest and see if that works. I'm saying this because I want you to keep your commenting privileges here.
In the original thread we addressed a lot of this. The study had one person out of 300 who got pericarditis after vax. You claimed this meant that a 1 in 300 rate. It was explained to you why that is not true. You made a false claim based on low science literacy.
You've now changed your position to 'possibly', but you still need to provide evidence for that opinion if asked. And you are just bad at doing this. Usually you respond with a bunch of rhetoric like you just have, which is both a diversion and a sucking up of mod time.
The more you do that kind of thing (make false statements, refuse to provide clear evidence, double down with more rhetoric when asked for evidence), the less trustworthy your opinions become. All I'm saying is up your game, because those kinds of claims are not necessary and they're counter productive.
In terms of TS, both of the main mods are sick of having to pull people up on this. Some topics require a very robust level of evidence, and this is obviously one of them. I want the debate here to stay open and people be allowed to argue a range of positions, but there are limits.
Is that Canada's particular legal situation boxing schools in?
Helen Joyce was on point,
https://twitter.com/HJoyceGender/status/1571054949727113217
https://twitter.com/HJoyceGender/status/1571054954282090498
the sooner we get public discussion about AGP and how it fits into the Stonewalled definition of trans the better.
Yes it is all legal. That is whom Self ID is for.
We've had unintended legislative outcomes before. One was the bill that legalized prostitution. Though the intent seemed to be the freeing up the lives of women of slender means, a non-trivial result was making life much easier for pimps.
that one was foreseeable too.
I never understood the intent of that bill. Negative outcomes were obvious.
I recall Chris Carter speaking about a study that had 68-80% of prostitutes reporting they required illegal drug use to get through the day. That didn't seem to give him pause for thought when advocating for the bill.
Decriminalising of prostitution stops punishing women who are largely doing sex work out of financial need. We could have decriminalised selling sex and criminalised buying sex though.
That's certainly a popular approach – I think Korea uses it, the effect is more to suppress some of the less desirable client behaviours, than to stamp it out.
I would have wanted a rule that only two forms of business were ok for prostitution though – self-employment, or cooperatives. No freeloading Terry Browns or Chow brothers motivated to grief or addict people to exploit.
The Nordic model (?) – that decriminalised the prostitutes, but retained laws against procurement or pimping was discussed at the time. The political will seemed to lie elsewhere.
(This topic is worthy of a specific post. There is a lot to it)
Sue Bradford took the position that sex work is work?
Well there was a section of the Labour party that was notoriously lacking judgment. It cost Clark dearly.
It's always been a complicated question, prostitution. It's no picnic for those obliged to resort to it, and it is often also exploitive of its customers. Recognizing it as vice is common in most societies, like gambling, which was also legalized in a similarly breathtaking act of irresponsibility around the same. So much for the decent society.
I imagine part of the motivation was the out of control neo-liberalism in Parliament, exercised through Winz, whose shriveled consciences could now pretend that going on the game was just like other forms of business.
Sheesh!
Some people are right attention seekers aren't they!
do you know what AGP is Mike? Do you think it's ok for a teacher to act out their sexual fetish in their day job in front of students and other staff?
Did I say I approve?
I simply meant that this person is obviously a through and through attention seeker and is getting all the attention he/she/it wants.
And suddenly a few of you get narky.
Some would describe that as "woke".
"And suddenly a few of you get narky."
Making comments is the point of this platform.
Asking for clarity is common. Especially when the intent is not clear.
Since only weka and I responded, I can't see that either of the two comments should make you feel defensive. But perhaps you do.
I asked you two reasonable questions Mike. Nothing narky, I'm curious if you understand that this person isn't simply seeking attention but is probably acting out their sexual fetish in a school classroom.
I also wanted to know if you are ok with that, not because I'm being narky, but because a large chunk of the left does indeed support this. So much so that in Canada, the school won't do anything about the sexual transgression.
@Mike the Lefty.
This person with a obvious sexual paraphilias – including exhibitionism – has unconsenting minors participating in his sexual stimulation.
And the school intends to defend this as inclusive practice.
Is there any reason why overtly sexualised behaviour such as this wouldn't result in any teacher being removed from the classroom – no matter who they were? Such laws exist, and things like this shouldn't escape them.
Trans people are divine and can't be touched.*
The problem the school has is that it will be accused of transphobia if it does anything. Canada has some hefty laws around this too, so their hands may be tied.
Few people want to talk about AGP. If we can't name AGP, or fetish, then this is simply a trans woman expressing her identity and it's forbidden to challenge that. It would be a brave person to stand up and say this is something sexual and therefore contextually wrong.
*here I mean the ideology. Plenty of trans people getting caught up in this bullshit unfairly.
Wait for the cries of transphobia, for not automatically affirming and celebrating this "womans" identity
This of course is the outrage that this automatic affirmation, self ID is about.
Anyone willing on this site to argue why someone with this fetish should be allowed to be around school pupils? Do I hear silence?
Blind affirmation, allowing this trans women's desires to trump all shows the madness of the allies of this movemnt.
Stunning and brave? Not so much, in fact not at all. Please make it stop
Bonkers mate….or cruising for a monetary payout courtesy of bonehead laws.
Johnny Mee's CT mates are in the news.
https://twitter.com/Gabriel_Pogrund/status/1571183835609534466
https://twitter.com/Gabriel_Pogrund/status/1571183839677923329
https://archive.ph/Fbpfv (the times)
I read in Stuff that the government is going to change the rules for subdividing land to protect valuable horticultural land from being developed into housing – particularly around South Auckland.
About f….ng time!
that's good news!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-democracy-reporting/300687900/government-gets-set-to-announce-new-policy-to-protect-prime-horticultural-land
Blanket rules that assume only one factor takes precedence often leads to unintended negative outcomes.
Soil classification is one consideration of many. Increase the weighting to reflect concern about productive land. Don't assume this is the only factor of merit.
Hi there,
As a founding member of Honour the Maunga, it feels important to respond to some of what has been raised here. Please excuse me as I haven’t read all the comments so will only address the ones that I have.
We have been dealing with accusations of racism from day one, despite our organisation being made up of people from many ethnic backgrounds, including Māori. I myself am indigenous on both sides, with tribal ancestry in the Middle East and Northern India that I can trace back thousands of years.
Given my own ancestors have dealt with the many damages of colonisation, had a treaty with the British and technically decolonized in 1971 by taking complete agency within their nation, what interest would I have in perpetuating Eurocentric norms? None.
However, I know through lived experience that life itself matters more than identify politics. My ancestral lands are damaged beyond recognition, entirely due to money making projects and intensification at the hands of my own people. So, I can’t turn a blind eye when I see this kind of damage to the Earth being perpetuated.
Our critics also fail to notice or mention that our organisation has been adopted via the process of uriwhanaunga into the Te Tawera hapu. This extended family bond is rooted in common concern. Te Tawera’s ancestor Wairaka’s footprints dwell upon this maunga, and they have voiced repeatedly the deep damage a tree massacre would have on this very special place.
It is also rarely acknowledged that a long term member of our group has started her own organisation. Shirley Waru is Māori and she has begun to assemble around protecting the non native trees on Ōtāhuhu/Mount Richmond. She has stated many times that it is not in her understanding of tikanga that such horrific destruction could be justified. Yet, Shirley gets very little coverage by any media, certainly less than we do for being ‘white racists’. Please note, I’m visibly not white and contain zero European DNA. The same goes for several of our other members, who consistently get rendered invisible.
So in terms of racism, it is frustrating to watch it play out in this way. If you are brown and don’t play to a cookie cutter prescription of what to believe and what to stand for, you are rendered voiceless. Much like the thousands of trees, birds and life forms about to butchered because people are unable to look past a binary construct that has been set up for them.
Additionally, regarding to 13,000 natives replacing 345 exotics – please note this doesn’t mean 13,000 trees are going to take the place of this existing urban forest. The vast majority of plantings are low growing grasses, and the vast majority of those already in the ground are dead. There are plenty of resources and data on our website http://www.honourthemaunga.org.nz for those who wish to examine this issue from its multiple angles further.
Regarding Canal Road, we were there. We were also there at Big Mac, Western Springs Forest and several other tree massacres. Sometimes for a very long time. I personally helped set up initial communications at Canal Road and dropped everything to show up at the old Four Kauri Medical Centre site recently to ask some quite dodgy tree fellers If they understood these native giants they were felling so haphazardly were someone’s ancestors. Our social media platform, which I manage, is consistently used as a voice of advocacy for other tree related movements. I hope that answers that question.
Where were we for the last ten years? Well for the last three we have been at this day in and day out, unpaid and holding down other full time roles at the same time. Frequent slander isn’t uncommon, but sometimes in life you don’t do things to be popular. You do them being it’s right, and you need to be able to live with yourself at the end of the day.
What happens to the land will affect all of us.
Sending love and blessings to all.
thanks Samar. There are obviously a lot of complex dynamics going on here. Thanks for stepping up for the trees.
Thank you ❤️
The Western Springs replanting is doing very well after the removal of the crumbling pine trees. All your chanting, cursing and pissing on the bulldozers got you nowhere.
Council spent close to $2m removing 200 mostly healthy pines, and in the process destroyed more native plants than they have replaced. Meanwhile, the area is now a wasteland.
You might find this article interesting.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/28-04-2021/western-springs-forest-isnt-being-restored-its-being-wantonly-destroyed
wow, that is stunningly bad.
Do you have any recent photos of the site?
We do.
I did a recent IG post comparing before and after on our Instagram @honourthemaunga – maybe seven posts or so back.
thanks
https://www.instagram.com/p/CiR2z9ULm4R/
Hi there
since your comment was in response to my post I think it’s polite to reply.
I haven’t personally cursed, chanted or urinated at any tree protection sites I’ve been too.
It’s great that some of the plantings at Western Springs are surviving and doing well. I am aware there are areas where the pine chip wasn’t cleared, and therefore volatile terpenes will be preventing the others from doing as well due to inhibiting root development.
The wet winter certainly would have helped.
However, the people on site weren’t just protesting the felling of the Pines, the majority of which were not crumbling, and this was proven to be true in assessments of the area. They were protesting the destruction of an existing wild native forest underneath them.
At least 15,000 established natives – including rewarewa, pōhutukawa, kauri, tōtara, taraire, kawakawa, kowhai, puriri, tarata, whauwhaupaku, taupata, karo, karamu, puka, kiokio, harakeke, horoeka, rimu, houpara, matipo, mamaku, ponga, nikau and more lost their lives at a price tag of round about 2 million dollars to be replaced by 7000 new ones, some of which appear to be surviving.
This is what the protestors fought for, and the innumerable other lives – animal, plant, insect, microbial, fungal, fish, eels – that went with this forest. And you’re right. It achieved nothing.
Now I’m sincerely curious. What makes you feel that was a positive outcome?
Cheers for your and fellows effort.
🙏🏽
Oh shit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9HtKwtxqvA&feature=youtu.be
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/18/asia/taiwan-earthquake-tsunami-warnings-intl/index.html
Just re rotting Trees and their problem/cost/danger. I had forgotten the dangerous Lombardy Poplar.
2018
Dec 2021
Planted by early settlers…and quite dangerous.
Trees need managing, native or exotic. The headline of the Queenstown example says it all.
Well..I personally …IMO, you understand..actually read the link article. And surprise..It DID say QLDC coulda/shouda.
However..IMO of course ! Dont think ALL trees need managed. SOME do. And that folks is my input here.
This has all become a bit …tiresome. So many on completely OPPOSITE sides. "Nativists" NonNativists" "Others". I cant be bothered. I'd as soon keep doing what I'm doing.
Forests that people spend a lot of time in, or that are next to important infrastructure always need to be managed.
We pay roading companies to manage the native trees that fall on the roads inside forested areas. Have you seen how much damage a full grown totara or other podocarp does when it falls?
Yes, some trees are prone to causing specific problems, including lombardies. As others point out this is a management issue, nothing to do with native or exotic. But no tree lives forever, and there will always be trees at the end of their life.
Ever seen large fallen tree limbs in native forests?
Dangerous as!
Hmm. Not too sure where you are going with that. Is to blow off my Poplar comment? Seems so. I kinda hope not..but ah well.
Nah. Trees tip over, especially those grown in a nursery, rather than as the result of fallen seed. Management is the answer, from start to finish. I wish every person was knowledgable about trees and plants in general.
Hear hear. BTW, Samar sent me this link. I just love what you've done. I wish I had the patience and the skills to tackle something like you both have.
Thanks, tinderdry6 – I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I'm not so patient and skilful – more restless and curious 🙂