Best foot forward for trees
Concerns cleaning stations won’t check relentless onslaught of dieback disease
AJamie Morton
environment uthorities battling the spread of kauri dieback disease are installing 20 new special cleaning stations — but Forest and Bird questions whether they’ll do much to check the tree-killing scourge.
The soil-borne disease has become prominent in the past decade, spreading throughout the Auckland region, the Coromandel, and to Waipoua Forest in Northland, the home of our most iconic kauri, Tane Mahuta.
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage yesterday said the 20 stations would be set up on tracks in the Kauri Coast and Bay of Islands districts, Whangarei, Auckland, Whitianga, Hauraki, Tauranga and Waikato.
“Human traffic is the main way kauri dieback is spread, so cleaning footwear and gear and staying on the track is the best way to contain the disease and save these forest giants,” Sage said.
“Research shows people are far more likely to use cleaning stations if they see others do it, and if they can see the stations are good quality and well signposted.”
DOC has trialled various cleaning methods and stations in recent years. Two years ago, it piloted world-first prototype cleaning stations at four sites in Northland and the Coromandel, and extensive testing, monitoring Rebecca Stirnemann, Forest and Bird and evaluation led to improvements.
Out of that came a large walkthrough, partly automated cleaning station at the Waipoua Forest, visited by nearly 150,000 people each year.
“Stations are designed to be easy to install and maintain and hard to ignore,” Sage said.
The cleaning stations feature a brush fixed to the base, so people can clean their shoes while holding onto a rail, rather than balancing on one foot, holding a scrubbing brush. A pedal pump also sprays disinfectant on the bottom of footwear.
Information from monitoring and feedback would inform further refinements ahead of other roll-outs.
Forest and Bird kauri-dieback spokeswoman Dr Rebecca Stirnemann said the stations would only be effective if every single speck of soil was also removed from footwear, walking poles, clothing and tyres.
“A casual brush and a spray won’t be enough as the SteriGene spray has not been scientifically proven to kill all the kauri dieback spores.”
Stirnemann said the installation of new cleaning stations also needed to coincide with upgrades to tracks.
“If these new cleaning stations are being installed alongside improved walkways that keep muddy boots away from kauri roots, then that is good news,” she said.
“If not, then they will do nothing to stop the spread within the forest.”
The group believed there needed to be an urgent focus on finding a cleaning solution that completely killed the spores — and, of course, a cure for the disease itself.
Forest and Bird wanted all public DOC tracks going through kauri forests, including Te Araroa, closed immediately until track upgrades and pig control lowered the risk of spread to an absolute minimum.
Forest and Bird backs an iwideclared rahui across Auckland’s Waitakere Ranges Regional Park.