Disappointment native trees felled for Akl housing development

Auckland Council said it's disappointing native trees have been felled by an affordable housing developer in South Auckland, but that it had to work within the law when it allowed it.

Environmental advocate Geoff Reid had highlighted the trees being cut down in Pukekohe, filming the large trunks left on the ground.

"This piece of forest was home to native bats and also quite old matai trees and our matai trees are a window into the past," he said.

"To go and log them is like pretty much taking down an 1800s church built from virgin kauri and using it for firewood, it's just a brazen act."

The trees were on private property, and developer Aedifice applied for and was granted two certificates of compliance.

But there was also a move to have the area classed as a significant ecological area.

Reid said it led to questions about Auckland Council and that the tree felling "shouldn't be happening".

Auckland Council, however, said it had to operate within the law.

"In this situation there was no protection on those trees so we had no ability to say no unfortunately," the council's director of regulatory services Craig Hobbs told 1News.

"We've now caught up and it is [protected] but unfortunately it came too late for that stand of trees."

A green light was given because it was a permitted activity under the Auckland Unitary Plan and did not trigger a need for a resource consent.

Auckland Council said its ability to consider indigenous fauna such as bats is limited to when a resource consent is required.

Hobbs said the felling was disappointing for a lot of people as the trees can't be replaced.

"A lot of us will look at it and say 'yeah it's really sad'. You can't replace a mature native tree. I hated seeing them on the ground," Hobbs said.

But he said they were unprotected when compliance was given because at the time there was no application to protect them.

"It's not something we aspire to but again we can't make decisions because of our personal preferences outside of what the regulations allow.

"There's nothing nefarious here. It's just a case of the way that things have rolled out over time," he said.

"Look, it's disappointing, but again, my personal preferences can't come into play here because it's not the rules we operate under."

"There's a lot of people very hurt by it but I'll come back to the fact while we all have a personal perspective on whether it's the right thing to do or not for those trees, we can only operate within the bounds of the law," Hobbs said.

Reid said many people were outraged.

"We know how important our ngahere is, we don't have a lot of biodiversity left.

"Something has to change urgently," he said.

The area in Pukekohe is Aedifice Property Group's Kohe development. Aedifice said there was extensive consultation with an ecologist and that local iwi had advance notification of what it was doing.

The developer also said it had permission from the current landowners to remove a small number of trees. In its first certificate of compliance it applied to fell up to 9500sq metres of trees and in its second, up to 16,000sq metres.

Aedifice explained the trees were removed to create a "critical access road" to the site.

"We commissioned a full ecology report, and this noted there was no presence of native bats within the bush area," it said in a statement.

Aedifice said it was confident its felling was as minimally disruptive to native birds as possible and had been timed to avoid the main nesting season.

The developer itself had applied for the remaining 9000 square metres of trees to be a significant ecological area. This was despite the council giving it permission to remove all of the trees, it said.

"In line with our commitment to preserving green spaces for families to enjoy, and also preservation and enhancement of ecological values, we are felling only the minimum number of trees required and creating a reserve with just under a hectare of existing trees," Aedifice said.

"All timber from the felled trees will be safely stored then repurposed to create new elements within the Kohe development."

It gave stream naturalisation and enhancement, landscape features, custom playground or directional signage as examples.

Aedifice also said the felled trees would be offered to local community groups and iwi.

Local iwi have been contacted for comment.