Thieves rip ancient tree from Pureora Forest

By PATRICK GOWER

Thieves have ripped an ancient matai tree from Department of Conservation land where it stood untouched for nearly 700 years.

The 20m tree was hacked down with a chainsaw and carted away in a large truck from the Pureora Forest Park in the central North Island over Christmas-New Year.

Peter Devlin, the DoC Pureora Field Centre manager, said native trees had been stolen before from the 68,000ha park.

But this was the first time a living tree of this size had been taken.

"They just drove a truck in there and chopped it down in three pieces," he said.

"And now it will be milled into saleable timber, or at worst, chopped into firewood."

Mr Devlin said the 1m-diameter trunk would be worth several thousand dollars on the black market.

The area has been renowned as a cornerstone of New Zealand's environmental history since barefoot ecologist Stephen King led a dramatic treetop sit-in to stop the logging of 1000-year-old totara in 1978.

Mr King was "dumbfounded" yesterday to hear that the tree had been stolen.

"This is just another setback, thanks to some idiots with no conscience."

Investigations had shown the thieves drove a truck fitted with a small crane on the back down an access road along a firebreak to the tree.

Constable Steve O'Halloran, of Benneydale, said that if the thieves were caught, they would be charged under the Conservation Act.

Tree thieves had been responsible for a recent spate of ponga being stolen for fencing, and they often mutilated trunks to get burl - a large tree's "warts" - for sale to craftspeople.

"These are people who used to log for a living until it became illegal," he said. "Now they are just carrying on with that, but doing it illegally."

Descendants of the land's original Maori occupants, the Poakani people, are angry about the theft.

Spokesman John Paki said: "We are shocked by the sheer audacity of this attack.

"All of the trees here are treasures to us, a reminder of the way things used to be."