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Residents of Whangateau concerned about the future of a line of pōhutukawa trees along the shoreline have been told the trees were always expected to die.
Auckland Council community facilities area manager Geoff Pitman told a public meeting in the Whangateau Hall on June 28 that the loss of the trees was part of the original plan, when the new mudcrete seawall was built in 2012.
During the forum, residents said the trees were an important feature of the domain, providing shelter for the “thousands” of visitors who used the area. Several trees are in decline and there were calls for rock walls to be built around them, infilled with soil.
However, Pitman said this was not something that would be promoted by Council officers and residents would need to take up the issue with their elected representatives, or through the annual plan and long-term planning processes.
Council was granted a resource consent to remove the failing rock riprap retaining seawall and associated rock that had migrated onto the foreshore at the domain 10 years ago.
As part of the project, the coastal edge was realigned landward, which involved the removal of imported fill, and a backstop wall was constructed about eight to 12 metres inward of where the previous wall had been, incorporating a pedestrian path along the top.
Imported sand was placed to create small pocket beaches between the remaining pōhutukawa trees, with the resource consent providing for periodic sand top-up to maintain the beaches.
The project aimed to improve the visual amenity of the coastal environment, and to improve public access to and along the coastal marine area.
Pitman said it was always anticipated at the time that ongoing realignment could continue to slowly occur, leading to the possible loss of the coastal edge and leaving the existing pōhutukawa at risk.
“The trees were due to be removed at the same time as the old seawall. However, following consultation with the community, it was agreed that they would remain in place with a condition in the resource consent that they would be replaced, should they succumb in the future.”
The trees were last assessed in 2019, where they were found to be in decline, but not terminal. At the time, it was agreed that Council would undertake measures to try to slow the decline of the trees by adding mulch and stopping spraying around the trees. Pitman agreed at the meeting to check that this was occurring.
He said an arborist was also due to do an updated assessment, and sand replenishment was also due to happen soon.
Long-time resident Rex Collings said Council made a mistake 10 years ago when it decided to remove the rock wall rather than repair it.
“It makes me very angry to see what’s happened here,” he said. “We tried to tell them at the time that taking the rocks away and replacing them with ‘a nice sandy beach’ wouldn’t work, but they wouldn’t listen.”
However, Ashton Road resident Audrey Sharp said she remembered there being two schools of thought at the time.
“The community was divided on the issue, with some in favour of the rock wall and others not,” she said.
Pitman made it clear that Council officers would not be advocating for the reinstatement of rock structures around the trees or their translocation. However, he did agree to meet with Whangateau reserve representatives to discuss tree planting elsewhere in the domain.
