Mokihinui chainsaw massacre
15th February 2013
Mokihinui chainsaw massacre
An ancient Kahikatea tree in the Mokihinui Forks
Ecological Area north of Westport, has been felled in
dubious circumstances.
The healthy 500 year old tree
near the Mokihinui Forks Hut on the Old Ghost Road
mountainbike trail, was chain-sawed by a Department of
Conservation contractor without consultation with the local
community. Many locals are upset at the destruction along
the walking track.
The Old Ghost Road is part of Prime
Minister John Key’s national cycleway project and is being
pushed through the wilderness by a private trust in
association with DOC, says says local conservationist, Pete
Lusk.
The Mokihinui Forks Ecological Area in the upper
Mokihinui River catchment, is rated as a priority site for
biodiversity conservation.
“This tree felling is a
symbol of how far DOC is prepared to go to assist the Old
Ghost Road Trust to carve a trail through this wilderness
conservation area,” he says. “This Kahikatea was an
iconic and very beautiful tree that they felled despite
being asked not to, because they wanted to expand the Forks
Hut and the tree apparently “constrained” the
site.”
“Now the tree stump and logs are all that
remain,” he says. “DOC signed the death warrant on this
tree to let the local Trust know that “this is the degree
of environmental damage that is acceptable to them and the
Department.”
“But it’s not acceptable to many
in our local community,” he says. “DOC claims the tree
had to go for safety reasons, but it was a perfectly healthy
giant tree. There wasn’t a spot of rot in it. I have
checked this personally by going through all the rings - yes
it has now been sliced up for firewood.”
He says the safety excuse doesnt wash. “The tree did not 'constrain' the site as far as the hut expansion went - the stump is still two metres from the nearest wall.”
“This
mighty tree in the prime of its life was over 500 yrs old.
It had survived and thrived through many major earthquakes -
the big one on the alpine fault in 1717, another huge jolt
around 1868, and the mega-quake of 1929 that devastated much
of the Mokihinui and was 30 times stronger than the
Christchurch quake.”
“On top of that it has stood
upright through every gale of the ferocious easterlies in
the Mokihinui that bowl over hectares of rainforest at a
single blast,” he says. “The only thing that wonderful
tree could not survive was a DOC sanctioned
chainsaw.”
This Government has absolutely no
interest in conservation, says Mr Lusk. “Prime Minister
John Key is right behind them doing this.” He says, the
cycleway project allowed the DOC regional office in Hokitika
to tell the Poutini Conservation Board that the West Coast
Conservation
“The regional manager could have added
the Conservation Act has been put on hold while the cycleway
goes through too, because thats whats happened, “says Mr
Lusk. “But more than half the trail passes through the
Mokihinui Forks Ecological Area and the kahikatea was inside
this area.”
Forest and Bird Top of the South field
officer, Debs Martin says the organisation “technically
doesn’t have a position on the Old Ghost Road”.
“Over the course of the road’s proposal, several
of our individual members have raised concerns. Some have
supported the notion of access, but many are very concerned
about the type of access into this remote backcountry
area,” she says.
“More recently ongoing
concerns have come in regarding ... the large scale of the
industrial activity that has happened and will be required
to complete this road,” she says.
“A huge
section [of the track] in the middle is still not complete
and is faced with significant geological challenges. It
traverses hard rock mountain top surfaces with 1000m
drop-offs.”
“A related issue is the obvious
domination by the Trust in the ‘ownership’ of the road
and the huts en route,” says Ms Martin. “Huts were
meant to be available for the public, but some members have
already found them locked.
Other concerns are coming to light regarding potential overriding of the CMS and other DOC guiding documents.”
“Forest and Bird
definitely has concerns about the Old Ghost Road and we are
seeking further information as well as working through the
issues,” she says.
Conservationist Pete Lusk
agrees that one of the biggest negatives was the way the
'upgrade' of the Old Ghost Road track bypassed normal
planning procedures and opened up a wilderness that DOC's
West Coast Conservation Management Strategy (CMS) had wanted
protected.
"When the local Conservation Board
questioned DOC they were told that the CMS didn't apply
since the money had come from the Ministry of Economic
Development, he says.
"This had everyone gobsmacked,
including me. I'd worked on the CMS when on the conservation
board a dozen years ago. DOC kept stressing to us how
important the document was and that CMS will be our "Bible".
DOC's senior planner said then that everything that happened
on public conservation land on the West Coast would be
governed by the CMS."
"Well, here's a project that
isnt! In fact the Old Ghost Road flys in the face of the
CMS and allows a private trust to blast away at mountaintops
and build huts in a very sensitive area," he
says.
"The isolation of the Mokihinui means, for
example, that many side creeks have no weeds. Its wonderful
to see original creekbed vegetation - no ragwort, no
thistles, no browntop, no white clover. Its hard to see this
remaining when the area is opened up to bikers and
trampers."
"Its as though John Key and Gerry Brownlee
have put one over us, bulldozing their way through the
environmental safeguards it took us year to get in place,"
he says.
ENDS