6 Dec 2017

Kauri dieback forces 13 Waitakere tracks to close

From Morning Report, 7:20 am on 6 December 2017

Auckland Council has voted against closing the Waitakere Ranges as a way of stopping the spread of kauri dieback.But it will close 13 of its 172 tracks. Environmentalists have been calling for the regional park, which covers 16,000 hectares of Auckland's west coast, to be closed in a bid to halt the spread of kauri dieback disease that has so far infected one in five trees. Penny Hulse, who chairs the council's environment and community committee, says enforcing a ban would be just too hard and expensive. Scientist Peter de Lange has been warning the fungal-like disease is pushing kauri towards extinction. He joins us to discuss.