‘Beautiful trees’ felled
Hastings man’s plan to save redwood trees fails
They promised that in the next few weeks they’ll plant native trees to encourage the tuis back into the local environment.
One man and his mobility scooter weren’t enough to stop the felling of four coast redwood trees in Parkvale. Lindsay Price, who parked his mobility scooter behind a truck in an attempt to stop the removal at the Windsor Drainage Reserve, said the destruction of hundreds of birds’ habitat was his main concern.
“I got behind the manager’s truck in my scooter to stop him backing out, which caused a bit of a confrontation,” he said. “He managed to squeeze past me but his truck brushed up against my scooter. It’ll take a lot of getting used to – we’ve been here for 18 years and we’ve looked out to a beautiful view every morning but sitting at the window, all I can see is a blank space instead of four big, beautiful trees.”
The Louis St resident added: “But they promised that in the next few weeks they’ll plant native trees where the trees were to encourage the tuis back into the local environment.”
Hastings District Council public spaces and building assets manager Colin Hosford said the council would look at planting native trees and shrubs to ensure a habitat for the native birds.
“Council staff and councillor Malcolm Dixon spoke to Price about the situation, after having dropped off copies of the report on the trees to him to look at over the weekend,” he said.
“We asked him about what the main issues were, and the impact on the local birdlife, especially tuis, seemed to be one of his biggest concerns.”
Dixon added: “Price was very fair and reasonable and listened to our perspective, and asked his questions and at the end we were all happy with the solutions.”
Not all Parkvale residents were disappointed at the loss of the trees, however. Jason Steele described the day as “a momentous occasion”.
“I’ve been living here for five years and to finally have them taken down is absolutely fabulous,” he said. “The trees served no purpose. They were getting bigger, becoming a bigger burden, block out all the light and create mould. These types of trees falling down is a regular occurrence and if you look at the size of them, God forbid if one did fall, somebody would’ve been killed.”