Pohutukawa safe from 'eco-Nazis'

By KENT ATKINSON

Project Crimson staff working to protect endangered rata trees and pohutukawa are not going to be "eco-Nazis" and rip out pohutukawa growing outside their native range, says a trustee, Ruud Kleinpaste.

"We do, where we can, re-introduce plants that are 'politically correct'," he said.

"But I am personally not that worried about trees already growing outside their native range, and I think a lot of the trustees will look at it the same way."

He told the guests at the charitable project's launching at Otari-Wiltons Bush on Tuesday: "The pohutukawa in Wellington ... is actually an imposter: it shouldn't really be here. But we're not eco-Nazis, we don't want to cut them down."

In some parts of New Zealand, the pohutukawa (metrosideros excelsa) is considered a pest.

On the West Coast, conservation officials have listed it as "a medium priority weed" because it is an invasive coloniser, particularly in coastal areas where it displaces rata, which also belong to the metrosideros genus.

The natural growing range of pohutukawa is north of a line across the middle of the North Island, and some officials believe it has become a pest in the rest of the country.

The trust has launched a "crimson trail" for the capital - one of a series it is opening around the nation - and said that although its focus in the region was on northern rata, it had also set up a trail for pohutukawa.

A two-hour, city-to-sea pohutukawa trail follows the coastal pathway from Pt Jerningham along Oriental Bay to the city centre, but the trust has emphasised northern rata at Otari, Eastbourne, Rimutaka Forest Park and Kapiti Island.

Mr Kleinpaste said the trust had been asked if spectacular pohutukawa trees in northwest Nelson, near the head of the Heaphy Track, should be removed because they were not native to the region, but had not accepted the idea.

A little-known fact was that one of the most magnificent displays of pohutukawa - on Rangitoto island - was entirely made up of hybrids between pohutukawa and the closely related rata.

But Mr Kleinpaste said there were some particularly pure environments, such as islands, where it would be worthwhile using only local seed from trees which had evolved in that region.

This was because the trees had developed traits useful to their survival in that region.

A Department of Conservation plant ecologist, John Sawyer, said the department wanted to encourage local provenance seeds and plants, and promoted nurseries which identified native plants according to the region in which their seed had been gathered.

"The plants down here are designed to live here," he said. "We're certainly not encouraging people to plant pohutukawa down here, or even northern rata from way up north."

Mr Sawyer helped to map the Wellington pohutukawa trail for Project Crimson, which is a partnership between DoC and Carter Holt Harvey, and said the northern intruders were "just stunning".

"But we're just promoting northern rata down here," he said. "We accept pohutukawa which have already established, but we are removing them from some of our islands, like Kapiti, Mana and Somes, where we have a chance of restoring an indigenous forest with northern rata dominant."

Northern rata used to occupy a wide range of niches in the Wellington environment but had been displaced by pohutukawa.

- NZPA


Herald feature: Environment