Respect Mt Richmond/Ōtāhuhu w/ Shirley Waru: September 24, 2021

This morning, Ilena spoke to Shirley Waru, leader of the grassroots group ‘Respect Mt Richmond/Ōtāhuhu’, about the planned felling of hundreds of exotic trees on the maunga.

Auckland Council recently issued a non-notified resource consent to allow Tūpuna Maunga Authority to fell hundreds of exotic trees there. The current resource consent is for felling 278 of the maunga’s 443 exotic trees, but the Authority intends to fell all exotics in time – which comprises 75% of the maunga’s entire tree cover. The plan is to replace these exotic trees with native plants, but, according to Shirley, this could mean that swathes of forest could simply be replaced by low-lying flax and shrubs, rather than comparable native trees. Similar plans are happening around Auckland’s volcanic cones, and there has already been an occupation at Mt Albert/Owairaka. 

Shirley talks about her engagement with the issue, what alternatives she proposes and why this felling should be reconsidered.