Tree wars: Auckland Council accused of flouting resource consent process over felling Western Springs pines

Auckland Council wants to clearfell all 200 pine trees behind the Western Springs lake and replant the area with 15,000 native trees. Photo / Doug Sherring

Tree wars have erupted in Auckland's iconic Western Springs as residents accuse Auckland Council of flouting its own resource consent process.

Planning commissioners have asked the council to answer questions by this Friday about its application to clearfell all 200 remaining pine trees in a 3.2ha block behind the Western Springs lake, below West View Rd in Grey Lynn.

But without waiting for the commissioners' decision, the council has asked West View Rd residents to evacuate their homes from tomorrow so that 13 pines which are considered to be at immediate risk of falling can be chopped down.

Auckland Council wants to clearfell the remaining 200 pine trees at the back of Western Springs. Photo /Tom Ang

Residents in the three closest houses have been told they can return to their homes at night but need to stay away while the trees are felled between 7.30am and 4.30pm from tomorrow until Friday.

The council says the 13 trees will be removed "under the emergency provision of the unitary plan".

Lawyer Deborah Manning, who lives in one of the three houses, said the decision to cut down the 13 trees in the very week when the council is due to reply to the commissioners' questions was an "abuse" of the resource consent process.

"We just seem to have Auckland Council behaving in a very high-handed manner," she said.

The decision to move quickly on the first 13 trees has highlighted the major change that would be involved if the council wins consent to clearfell all 200 pine trees.

It says in its application that the pine trees were planted in the 1920s and are reaching the end of their lives.

Western Springs' pine trees are now 90 years old and 300 out of 500 have already died or been removed. Photo / Tom Ang

About 300 pines have already been removed or died in the past 20 years, and 62 per cent of the remaining 200 "are either dead, have heavily reduced canopies, have sustained damage by fire or are visually displaying poor health".

The remaining forest has now been closed to the public because of the danger of more trees falling down,

Until now dead and dying trees have been cut down bit by bit and mostly left on site. But the council says the remaining trees are now too weak for arborists to climb safely to cut them individually, so the only option is to clearfell the whole forest in one two-month operation planned for this March and April.

The application includes an 8m-wide access road from the bottom of the site near the lake, a 40m-wide processing area and a 20m-wide landing area.

Native species are growing underneath the thinning old pine trees at Western Springs. Photo / Tom Ang

The site will be replanted in native trees. But in the short term, an ecological report says the clearfelling "will result in the damage and destruction of most indigenous vegetation in the sub-canopy and understorey" under the thinning pine forest.

The independent commissioners, who heard evidence last month, have asked the council to explain by this Friday whether there were any other options for removing the pines and protecting the forest, which has been designated a Significant Ecological Area.

Grey Lynn resident Wendy Gray has gathered 755 signatures on a petition asking the council to drop the clearfelling and to manage the forest by "surgical removal of only trees predisposed to failure".

However Waitematā Local Board chairwoman Pippa Coom said the council had budgeted to replant 15,000 native trees as soon as the pine trees are removed.

"We want it to be amazing regenerating bush with great tracks through there and bring back the birds," she said.

A West View Rd resident has asked the council to remove a dead pine tree (circled) near his house. Photo / Auckland Council

She said a West View Rd resident had asked the council to remove a dead pine tree which threatened to fall on their house, and the experts decided to cut down 12 other nearby trees at the same time this week.

"I don't think waiting another month [for the resource consent] would be good," she said.

"If council is aware of a serious risk, to not act would not be good practice."