Disease takes over Pahiatua pine trees

"It's been alarming. They are brown from the top to the bottom." Colleen Cotter, Pahiatua resident

Rows of brown pine trees have Pahiatua residents worried the evergreens are dying.

Horizons Regional Council has received several calls from people concerned about hundreds of brown pine trees along the Pahiatua Track. Most years it receives none about the problem.

Pahiatua resident Colleen Cotter said the unusual occurrence of the browning evergreens started about April and it had just got worse.

Plantations across Pahiatua looked as though they were rusting and it was even spreading on to her property in Pahiatua, she said.

‘‘It’s been alarming. They are brown from the top to the bottom.’’

Every week, Cotter drove over the Pahiatua Track, and she noticed that more trees were affected. The problem had even reached close to Masterton, she said.

Horizons biodiversity adviser Ruth Fleeson said it was most likely a common disease that had been in Tararua District since the 1950s. ‘‘The dieback is likely caused by a disease called red needle cast.’’

The disease could be more prominent this year because of wintry weather, she said.

The council was unlikely to do anything about it as it wasn’t new to the area, she said. It affected pine trees, regardless of their age, but most of them would survive it, Fleeson said.

Cotter said she doubted that her nowbrown trees would survive. She was worried the council was taking it too lightly. ‘‘I reckon they are dead already.’’ According to Farm Forestry New Zealand, red needle cast is most common in the upper North Island.

The disease peaks from July to September and symptoms are rare in summer.