Old matai make way for campervans

by frog

When the Haast highway builders passed through ancient Matai forest forty years ago, the trees were left standing close to the road. After all, some of them had already been there for 1000 years or more.

So that’s why Metiria is trying to find out why Transit currently felling 250 ancient podocarps along this scenic highway, adjacent to Mt Aspiring/Tititea National Park and within Te Wahipounamui/South West New Zealand World Heritage site.

The roading agency claims that the trees are dead and dying. But no arborist has been consulted, contrary to a bizarre email from the Minister of Conservation on this issue that also suggests “giving access to the [timber] resource”! And as a West Coast resident pointed out; if the trees are so rotten, why are they now to be sold for timber?

There have been plenty of nasty road accidents along on this stretch of highway, but none involved the toppling of ancient, but healthy, trees. Most involve campervans, as the Haast Highway surely has the highest concentration of campervans in the world and, at times, difficult driving conditions.

At Bruce Bay a few years ago, Transit backed down on plans to clear the corridor of trees which leads to the Mahitahi River, because of a public outcry over the destruction of a stunning stretch of road which is a tourist attraction in its own right. Here the trees are but a few centimetres from the white line.

And along the Haast Highway a few years ago the Government paid $300,000 to protect ancient trees that were being felled on private land.

Unfortunately Transit has not yet learnt from these precedents – its lack of consultation and overzealous tree-felling are not out of character, but it’s not too late to stop the destruction of these ancient trees. And, in the longer term, we need to ensure that this does not set a precedent for Transit and councils nation-wide to start felling ancient natives next to our roads.

Photo credit: Gouldy99