Tree protection group accuses Auckland Council of hypocrisy
Media release issued: 13 March 2020
The tree protection community group occupying Ōwairaka / Mt Albert for the past four months has accused Auckland Council of hypocrisy, saying its Parks Week celebrations are ironic given the Council is actively supporting Tūpuna Maunga Authority’s plans to fell nearly 2000 healthy mature trees from Auckland’s volcanic cones.
Honour the Maunga has occupied Ōwairaka/Mt Albert around the clock since 11 November 2019 to prevent 345 trees – nearly half its tree cover – from being needlessly felled. More than 8000 people have also signed a petition against the tree felling.
Honour the Maunga is trying to prevent Ōwairaka’s trees suffering the same fate as Mangere mountain’s ones. Photo: Kirsty Hunt
Spokesperson Anna Radford says: “Auckland Council is promoting Parks Week and has declared a Climate Emergency, yet it is doing nothing to prevent this wide-scale tree-felling.”
Auckland Council manages all maunga under Tūpuna Maunga Authority’s direction and provides ratepayer-funded budget for the Authority. Six of the Authority’s 12 voting members are Auckland Council representatives.
The group’s spokesperson Anna Radford says the Council has had numerous opportunities to prevent this mass tree-felling but refuses to do so.
Auckland Council’s Governing Body voted to approve this year’s ratepayer-funded Draft Operational Plan unchanged, despite knowing the Authority’s intends to strip Auckland’s maunga of all exotic trees. There was only one dissenting vote (Councillor Christine Fletcher).
Auckland Council representatives comprise half of Tupuna Maunga Authority’s voting members, yet they support this environmentally destruction action.
Auckland Council also approves non-notified resource consents for the large-scale fellings on Auckland’s maunga.
“It is highly cynical of them to promote Parks Week when in fact they are supporting environmental destruction on public reserves across Auckland,” says Radford.
Honour the Maunga supports Tūpuna Maunga Authority’s long-term vision of cloaking the maunga in native vegetation but questions the environmentally destructive process of removing all the exotic trees in a short time-frame.
It is well recognised that succession to fully native vegetation should be managed over a lifetime, not weeks.
Even though the Authority will undertake thousands of native plantings to replace the trees, analysis of planting plans has revealed that the vast majority are low-growing species such as grasses, flaxes and shrubs.
“These small plants will never sequester much carbon and it will take many decades for the relatively few native trees planted to be large enough to do this. It would be better for the native plantings, the environment and people who enjoy using these reserves to leave the exotic trees in place while the native plantings grow to maturity,” says Radford.
Ms Radford went on to note that the Authority was wasting ratepayers’ money spent on native plantings due to negligent and neglectful revegetation practises.
Dead native saplings on Owairaka / Mt Albert. These trees would have had a much better chance of survival if planted under the protective canopy of elder trees. Note the row of mostly dead grasses at the foot of the retaining wall.
People living near Mangere, Mt Wellington and Pigeon Mountain, which have already been largely cleared of exotic trees, have told Honour The Maunga how upset they are at the resulting devastation and lack of care for the new plantings on those maunga.
Very little replanting appears to have been done there and any new plantings have been badly neglected. Dozens of dead plants, many still in their plastic pots, can be seen lying in patches of weed-sprayed grass on those maunga. Local residents report that many native birds no longer visit because their habitats have been destroyed.
Radford stresses that Honour The Maunga has absolutely no issue with Treaty settlements or co-governance entities involving Māori.
“Our issue is with a specific set of processes and ratepayer-funded expenditure in the Authority’s operational plan.”
A 2014 Treaty settlement vested ownership of 14 volcanic cones (maunga) in a collective of 13 iwi / hapu (Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau) on the condition that they are held in trust for the common benefit of Ngā Mana Whenua and the other people of Auckland.
‘The other people of Auckland’ includes Māori excluded from that settlement, as well as people from other ethnicities. The settlement also required the maunga land to remain as public reserves, which guarantees public access.
ENDS
IMPORTANT NOTE TO EDITORS: If you are contacting the Authority or Council for comment, then please be aware that it consistently misrepresents the truth on this matter. See below for common statements made by the Authority and allied organisations, and the reality. We can provide you with verification of all ‘Fact’ statements below:
Fiction: Most of the exotic trees are pest species / There are 182 pest trees on Ōwairaka
Fact: The Auckland Regional Pest Management Strategy defines only 7 of Ōwairaka’s 345 trees as being pest species.
Fiction: Ōwairaka’s many olive and Japanese cherry trees are pest species
Fact: Neither of these trees are defined as pests under the Auckland Regional Pest Management Strategy.
Fiction: Auckland Council can’t tell the Authority what to do
Fact: Tūpuna Maunga Authority was established as a co-governance organisation because the Treaty settlement vested ownership of the maunga to be held in trust for the benefit of Ngā Mana Whenua and the other people of Auckland.
Half of the Authority’s voting members are Auckland Council representatives, who can absolutely influence the Authority’s decision-making. The Council also has the power to approve budgets, ratify the Authority’s operational plans and rule upon the Authority’s resource consent applications.
Fiction: Eucalyptus trees poison the soil so nothing can grow under them
Fact: Young native trees can be seen happily growing underneath larger eucalyptus trees in the bush at the back of the archery field. Most of Ōwairaka’s eucalyptus trees are in very exposed areas, where little else can survive. It is therefore the harsh environment, rather than the trees, which is causing the problem.
Pssst! Somebody tell those trees that they’re not supposed to be able to grow under the “poison” eucalyptus. Examples like this can be seen all over the maunga.
Note that the eucalyptus trees form wind-breaks around the maunga, so removing them will result in much harsher growing conditions for the native plantings.
Fiction: Many of the exotic trees are health and safety hazards
Fact: Health and safety is constantly used to justify the destruction of Auckland's urban forest. We can find no evidence of a TMA expert H&S assessment of the health and safety risks of Ōwairaka's trees.
Despite Auckland suffering one of the worst droughts in years, a plethora of healthy self-seeded native plants could be seen growing happily in the shade of exotic trees. In this case, 18 large karaka and 7 totara under a cherry tree. Photo: John Clark.
Fiction: Exotic trees take up water and nutrients that could be better used by native trees.
Fact: All trees work together to form communities and do not discriminate between exotic and native like we do. Mature trees nurture the young trees. See for yourself the countless native seedlings growing in the protective shelter of the exotic trees at the back of the archery and soccer fields.
Spin: The 345 exotic trees will be replaced with 13,000 native plants
Fact: The vast majority of these plants are low-growing species such as grasses and sedges. Very few trees will be planted, which will take many decades to reach a level of maturity where they can even come close to replacing the benefits of the felled trees.
Fiction: Honour the Maunga’s actions are culturally insensitive and/or racist
Fact: We are questioning deeply flawed processes; we are not questioning a people. Furthermore, we are challenging the Authority’s Auckland Council members as much as we are challenging anyone.
The maunga lands are public reserves, which are held in trust for the benefit of Ngā Mana Whenua and the other people of Auckland. Would Honour The Maunga be occupying privately held Māori land such as a marae if trees were to be felled? Absolutely not!