Government gives up on Dutch elm disease

The Government's decision to abandon the fight against Dutch elm disease was made against the advice of an independent advisory group.

The programme's advisory committee, made up of staff from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the forestry industry and Auckland councils, wanted an extra $13 million spent over the next decade to get rid of the disease, detected in Auckland in 1989.

The committee is understood to be making its concerns known to Biosecurity Minister Jim Sutton.

The programme currently costs around $250,000 a year, including contributions from Auckland City, Manukau, North Shore and Waitakere City Councils.

Auckland City Council aboriculture manager Mark Bowater said the council spent around $30,000 a year on detecting the disease and removing infected trees.

"What we are keen to hear now from Biosecurity New Zealand is what plan B is," he said.

Farm Forestry Association spokesman Denis Hocking said the disease could have been beaten if the programme had been "ramped up" as the committee recommended.

"Basically, urban elm trees are doomed sooner or later and removing them will be expensive, but that's a cost the Government has now loaded on to councils," he said.

Two years ago the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry was confident it could eradicate the disease in Auckland, but it warned at the time if it was unsuccessful, local councils would "bear the full costs" of trying to control it.

An outbreak in Napier a few years ago was successfully stamped out.

The news comes as Auckland Regional Council finds itself battling an invasion of the Asian kelp undaria in the Waitemata Harbour, another biosecurity battle the Government has withdrawn funding for.

Undaria, detected here in 1987, has been deemed a "regional" problem and the ARC is angry ratepayers will foot the bill for efforts to stop the kelp spreading into the Hauraki Gulf. Undaria has spread to most other major ports in the country.

Dutch elm disease is caused by a fungi that is carried by a beetle.