Titirangi Community Learns to Care for Their Kauri

Titirangi Community Learns to Care for Their Kauri

The Titirangi community turned out this week to learn how to care for their kauri trees from the Titirangi Ratepayers and Residents Association and Auckland Council who hosted a public meeting at Kelston Community Centre.

TRRA Chair Dr Mels Barton said “The messages were warmly received by the community who are hungry for information about this terrible disease that is killing our kauri trees. The quick fire format of the meeting was praised as very engaging. People who attended said they learned a lot of new information that was easy to understand and they will share it with others. We’d be happy to do it again any time”.

The top messages that attendees took away with them were:

1. Kauri are easily stressed and stressed trees are more vulnerable to pests and diseases. Healthy trees are more able to fight off disease for longer.
2. Kauri love mulch and lots of it. The best way to protect kauri roots is to cover them in a deep bed of mulch 8-10cm thick that extends well beyond the edge of the canopy. Leave a gap between the mulch and the trunk to avoid rot.
3. Kauri roots are shallow, sensitive and easily damaged. Do not mow or weed-eat under your trees and leave all leaf litter and branch fall to compost naturally under the trees and add to the mulch pile.
4. Kauri roots extend much further than you think. A distance of 30m around each tree is the distance recommended in the new Unitary Plan to be avoided when working around kauri. In Titirangi this means you are almost always within 30m of a kauri tree whether it is located on your property or your neighbours.
5. Recreate the natural forest environment in your garden by planting companion trees around your kauri to protect them. Good species are manuka, kanuka, mapou, tanekaha, rewarewa, shining karamu.
6. Treat all kauri as potentially infected as disease symptoms may take years to show. The precautionary principle is the safest approach to take.
7. You are the biosecurity officer for your property and in order to keep kauri dieback disease out you must ensure that anyone entering your property has their shoes and all equipment clean when coming in and when leaving. This includes contractors such as builders, fencers, plumbers, landscapers, gardeners, arborists - and yourself. Clean in - clean out.
8. All potentially diseased material, including kauri trunks and branches must remain on site and not be removed or mulched.
9. Auckland Council is launching a competition to find the best, most creative homemade sign encouraging people to scrub their shoes and spray with trigene. Contact Christine Rose Auckland Council’s Kauri Dieback Community Co-ordinator – Waitakere Ranges for more details.
10. Always comply with signs on public land that close tracks to protect healthy kauri and find an alternative route. Always use the cleaning stations to scrub and spray your shoes every time you pass one. Keep your dog on a lead, spray its feet too and stick to the tracks. It only takes a tiny bit of mud to spread kauri dieback disease and the invisible spores survive forever.
11. Anyone with sick trees on their property can join the Auckland Council’s trial programme using phosphite. To report sick trees on private or public land call 0800 NZ KAURI.

Auckland Council and the Titirangi Ratepayers and Residents Association would like to spread the word about Caring for Our Kauri to other communities affected by the disease and are happy to run a similar meeting in other areas. To request a meeting for your community contact Christine Rose.

ENDS

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