Overnight stay in bid to save tree
Protester Charlie CottrellJury, who scaled a threatened
150-year-old norfolk pine in north Auckland at 5am yesterday, says he will stay overnight to protect the tree.
The tree was due to be felled by contractors at 7am, but Cottrell-Jury was already up the tree and said he would not come down until the developer agreed to leave it alone.
Members of the Snells Beach community say they are behind Cottrell-Jury, and will collect food and supplies for him overnight.
Police said he was trespassing and tried to talk him down but Cottrell-Jury said he was willing to stay ‘‘as long as it takes’’.
Developer Vavasour Investments was granted an unnotified resource consent by the Auckland Council to remove the tree as it was not considered desirable for its
33-home Boathouse Bay development. When contractors arrived to fell it initially, residents blocked them on August 21.
Cottrell-Jury is an arborist himself and says he is sick of seeing a succession of beautiful trees being felled for development with the watering down of the Resource Management Act over the past couple of years.
Snells Beach community members had previously reached out to local councillors for help and went to the Environment Court seeking an interim protection order which was not granted.
Cottrell-Jury’s occupation of the tree was a ‘‘last ditch’’ effort to save it.
Tree advocate Michelle MacKenzie hoped the protesters’ efforts stopped the felling, but she was not confident as the tree-felling contractors were due to return at 7am today.
MacKenzie has been passionate about saving the tree, but her advances to Auckland Council and the Environment Court have been in vain.
‘‘We have got absolutely no recourse whatsoever.’’
She pointed to the council removing protected trees in Avondale and its plans to remove notable trees in Cornwall Park.
‘‘They are chopping down protected trees – what chance does anybody have.’’
Changes to the Resource Management Act were ‘‘destroying trees around the country’’, she said.
‘‘Yes. A lot need to come down, but not the special ones. There needs to be some accountability.’’
She challenged the consent being granted non-notified.
‘‘It’s historic. It is dearly loved by the community.’’
It also sat in a Ma¯ori archaeological area, she said.
‘‘There’s middens and all sorts of stuff through here.
‘‘As part of the resource consent, any earthworks around the tree needs to have an archaeologist there.’’
MacKenzie was also among residents who did not support the development by the beach. ‘‘Thirty-three bloody units going in here when there has been reports prior to them even going for consent for the development back in 2015, highlighting the ... need for quiet roosting spaces for our birds.’’
In its consent application Vavasour Investments included a memo from planners Boffa Miskell which claimed the key consideration was the propensity of large mature norfolk pine trees to drop substantial litter.