Protester narrowly avoids falling tree
A West Auckland environmental activist narrowly escaped injury yesterday when a tree he was trying to stop being felled crashed down.
Steve Abel has been involved with the Avondale protest for nearly two weeks, part of group trying to protect a stand of mature natives in Canal St.
Abel, the Green Party candidate for New Lynn, rushed to scale one of the trees as workers continued cutting a large tree nearby. All of a sudden it crashed on to the tree Abel was in.
Two police officers raced to get away while Abel clung to the tree.
He told the Herald he was okay after the incident, and had remained in the tree since. Abel said the protesters wanted Auckland Council to acquire the land, either by purchasing it or through a land swap.
“It is an absolute travesty that dozens of mature native trees can just be chopped down, without any protection.”
A report presented yesterday to the council’s environment and climate change committee showed some parts of Auckland had lost nearly 10 per cent of their canopy cover in just a few years, largely due to development.
While canopy growth on public land had risen significantly, it had dramatically reduced on private land.
Despite this, the council’s Urban Ngahere Strategy advocates for protection of mature trees across the region, which Abel said it was not living up to.
“If the council is just going to let these trees come down, then that strategy is not worth the paper it is written on. If this cluster of native trees is not worth protecting then what will they protect?”
The Tree Council, which is not linked to or in support of the direct protest action, had approached the council about three years ago fearing development at the site, suggesting it buy the land or look at swap options, including the nearby public reserve which has comparatively few trees. But nothing happened. Spokeswoman Dr Mels Barton previously said although the Resource Management Act changes meant there was little the council could do to stop the trees being felled, it needed to be “more imaginative”.
“It could have been an incredible gift to the people of Avondale, it is a beautiful site, but instead their approach has been a disgrace.
“It illustrates what is happening every day across Auckland, and what already happened here in this suburb . . . it is a chainsaw massacre.”
A council spokeswoman previously told the Herald it had no plans to purchase the property. She said Canal Reserve, which was on the same road, already served the community’s open space needs.
While the council could not stop unprotected trees on private land being felled, it had various strategies and programmes to plant trees on council land, including the Urban Ngahere Strategy and the Million Trees programme.
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A police spokesman said officers were continuing to “monitor the situation”. “The role of police is to ensure the safety of all and uphold the law and we are liaising with both parties in this matter,” he said.
It is an absolute travesty that dozens of mature native trees can just be chopped down, without any protection.
Steve Abel environmental activist