Forest and Bird is sounding the alarm over native forests it says are dying of neglect in Northland.
Watch the footage here:
The conservation group's drone footage, released online today, shows extensive damage to forest in Russell, Otangaroa and northern Whangaroa.
Many big trees are reduced to skeletons.
Forest and Bird's Northland advocate Dean Baigent-Mercer said the forests were dying because of rampant possum damage and it was almost too late to save them.
He said the same thing was happening in other forests around New Zealand that have had no sustained pest control for decades by DOC or regional councils.
Mr Baigent-Mercer said DOC and volunteers were holding the line with pest control efforts in forests such as Waipoua, Mataraua and Waima in the north.
Other reserves were becoming ghost forests and the Conservation Department would need a serious increase in funding to bring them back from the brink, he said.
