More mature trees could be protected by Auckland Council – something The Tree Council claims results from its legal challenge.
The Tree Council lodged proceedings in the High Court last November against Council’s decision not to process any of the 587 nominations it received over the last 7-10 years to schedule trees as Notable Trees under its Unitary Plan.
Last month Council announced that it is commencing assessment of 610 nominations for inclusion in the Notable Tree Schedule, and preparing a plan change for notification next year to add trees that meet the criteria to the schedule.
The Tree Council says this is a direct result of its court proceedings.
Tree Council chair Sean Freeman says while the move is a positive one, the majority of the trees have already been lost to development.
The Tree Council is calling on Council to re-open the Schedule of Notable Trees to public nominations now, so that any special trees still standing across the region can be nominated, processed and protected.
“It would be irresponsible to allow this opportunity to protect these trees to slip away when there is so much pressure on mature trees with the intensification happening in our city,” Freeman says.
In addition, The Tree Council is imploring government to reinstate general tree protection on private land in the proposed Natural and Built Environments Bill. Supporters sent over 2400 individual submissions calling for this to the Environment Select Committee on the exposure draft of the Bill.
This is something that Council is also calling for. Its Planning Committee resolved last November to seek the reinstatement by the government of general tree protection.
Mayor Phil Goff says even if more notable trees are added to Council’s schedule, this does not stop the widespread and sometimes arbitrary removal of significant mature trees outside those which are specifically listed.
“Council continues to push for the government to implement a better solution through resource management reforms that will enable general protection of Auckland’s significant trees,” the Mayor says.
“We have been advocating strongly for the restoration of some of the general tree protections removed by the previous National government in 2013 as part of changes to the Resource Management Act. The removal of these protections means councils must rely on listing individual trees at significant cost, and this has resulted in a lack of protection for large numbers of trees of notable size and character across Auckland.”
He says although Council can schedule specifically identified notable trees, doing so tree by tree is costly and time consuming and will only protect a minority of Auckland’s important trees.
“While Council officers have secured the resources needed to progress the scheduling process in this instance, the costs mean that this is not an adequate long-term solution.”
He says last month, in response to a letter co-signed with Councillors Chris Darby and Richard Hills, Environment Minister David Parker advised that Associate Environment Minister Phil Twyford was appointed to take the lead on tree protection in the new system, as it aligned well with his delegations for urban development.
“We look forward to working closely with Minister Twyford to progress changes that meet Auckland’s needs, protect trees, and continue to support the city’s development.”
It is worth noting too that even trees listed as Notable by Council are felled – as the giant macrocarpa, pictured, by Manly Beach was recently, after a successful resource consent application.
