As at January, more than 100 tracks in the Waitākere Ranges were closed - seven of them permanently - while 29 were open and four were partially open. Photo / File
As at January, more than 100 tracks in the Waitākere Ranges were closed - seven of them permanently - while 29 were open and four were partially open. Photo / File
Aucklanders will soon learn what access they'll have to the Waitākere Ranges in coming years – but already there are tensions over whether the popular regional park should stay closed to protect its under-threat kauri.
Auckland Council officials are expecting within days a report summarising nearly 800 submissions received on its Draft Track Plan for the 16,000ha park.
The council had developed the plan alongside local iwi Te Kawerau ā Maki, which, in 2017, declared a rahui over the park to help stem rampant rates of tree-killing kauri dieback disease, before councillors themselves voted on a ban.
The plan proposed a staged upgrading and re-opening of the tracks on the edge of the ranges forest and around the coast, with a focus on re-instating the multi-day Hillary Trail.
Tracks within the forest at iconic destinations, such as Fairy Falls, were also proposed to be upgraded, but the majority of the interior of the forest was not prioritised for re-opening within the next decade.
As at January, more than 100 tracks were closed – seven of them permanently – while 29 were open and four were partially open.
Under the proposed plan, around 30 tracks would stay open, eight would be upgraded this year, another 30 would be part of a five-year work programme and the rest would remain shut.
The council said tracks would only be opened once they were of a standard where they protected forest health and stopped soil-borne kauri dieback being moved in and out of the park.
Friends of Regional Parks Auckland's (FORP) submission, shared with the Herald, argued greater recreational use of the park "must and can be made" while protecting forest health.
The group sought major revisions to the track plan, and asked that all permanent track closures be delayed until work on the council's Regional Park Management Plan, due for review next year, was completed.
It also called for high value kauri areas to be identified and then ringed off with total exclusion zones.
Its chair, Bronwen Turner, said the conservation of the forest was a "foundation point" for the group and it had supported the rahui.
"But we also believe that, when areas can be made safe according to the MPI standards, then they can be used."
Turner said there were specific concerns around some communities not having access to their local tracks, some properties being cut off, and bush overgrowth in closed areas.
"If there tracks are not being used, it is going to be very difficult to get them back up to speed, and we are concerned that that difficulty will become an impediment to ever getting them re-opened."
The group's submission however prompted the resignation of three of its key member groups: The Tree Council, Waitākere Ranges Protection Society and Waitākere Forest & Bird.
"The precautionary principle applied by the iwi and the council in closing the park because it is not safe to keep it open is the right one," former FORP secretary Dr Mels Barton said.
"I cannot support anything that contradicts that approach and endangers the health of the forest for the sake of increased recreation."
Kauri dieback disease has become prominent over the past decade and remains incurable. Photo / File
The council's regional parks manager, Rachel Kelleher, said she hadn't yet looked over all of the submissions, but an initial review found that half agreed with the council's proposal, just less than half wanted more tracks re-opened, and a small proportion wanted yet more closed.
She said the council expected to complete the process within the next few months, although there were some tracks – including Zigzag Track, Comans Track, Slip Track, the lower Arataki Nature Trail – that could be re-opened by winter.
Before the widespread closures were implemented, the regional park received around one million visitors each year.
Elsewhere, the Department of Conservation (DOC) has closed four Auckland tracks on public conservation land - Omaha Cove Walkway, Beverly Price Loop Track and Waihunga Moir Hill Track – as part of upgrade work to prevent kauri dieback spread.
"The upgrades are the safest option for kauri and enable visitors to continue enjoying these special places," DOC's Tāmaki Makaurau Mainland operations manager Kirsty Prior said.
"Unfortunately, trespassers have frequently entered the closed section of the Okura Walkway and barriers to keep people off the closed track have been regularly vandalised."
Meanwhile, 14 iwi groups were working alongside scientists and specialists around the upper North Island on one of the biggest kauri seed collections in decades.
"By taking seed from mature trees, we're hoping to get a better understanding of the range of genetic resistance present," said Dr Nari Williams, leader of the joint Healthy Trees Healthy Future programme.
"This is one part of understanding why and how some trees succumb to dieback and others remain apparently disease-free."
Rongo Bentson is among dozens of scientists and hapu collecting kauri seeds around the upper North Island. Photo / Supplied
When the seedlings are 15 months of age, they are sent to Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research in Auckland where they are screened for resistance to kauri dieback.
The plants are flooded with water containing Phytophthora agathidicida to encourage infection.
Researchers monitor them closely to see how the disease takes hold and how long they survive after infection.
The plants are also analysed to see what chemical reactions are triggered, hoping to find one that may be effective at neutralising the disease.
"Although early days, it's starting to get really exciting," Williams said.
Scientists had begun to see a range of responses to how the plants succumbed to infection.
"There is a big difference between understanding what happens in the glasshouse and how vulnerable trees are within the forest, but it gives us hope for the future of kauri."
Kauri dieback disease has become prominent over the past decade, spreading throughout the Auckland region, the Coromandel, and to Waipoua Forest in Northland, the home of our most iconic kauri, Tane Mahuta.
