1 Apr 2019

Auckland council's tree plan

From Afternoons, 1:35 pm on 1 April 2019

They provide clean air for us to breathe, beautify our spaces and bring nature to our doorstep - but not all areas in Auckland have as many trees as others.  

Auckland Council is aiming to change that and to plant over 10 percent more trees in the city in the coming years.

Kauri trees

Kauri trees Photo: RNZ/Dan Cook

The Council has released a strategy to tackle these problems in the city, looking at how to expand the urban forest and spread out trees across the region.

John Mauro, Auckland Council's sustainability officer, told Jesse Mulligan about the strategy.

“One thing that we could probably be certain of is that at least all of us have a common love for trees here in Auckland.”

But he says we’ll see some major pressures on our trees as the years go on– natural pressures, intensification of urban areas and climate change.

The Council’s aiming for 30 percent of Auckland to be covered with trees – right now there’s about 17- 18 percent.

“It’ll probably take quite some time to get to, to be honest.”

But, planting trees is a “slam dunk” investment, he says.

“Trees can cool cities – between two and eight degrees Celsius, when they’re near buildings they can cut air conditioning use by about 30 percent, they can reduce heating and energy use by another 20 or 50 percent, they pull in carbon dioxide, they treat our air.

“I think some of the fun stuff about the value of trees is really around the almost intangible. There are some researchers out there quantifying mental health benefits, retail and footfall, some are even saying that they make us feel younger, wealthier and happier.”

While Auckland Council will be doing a lot of work, Mauro says everyone can do their bit to grow the urban tree population in the city.

And while incentives may help, the trees themselves are a payback.

“There’s probably some slight difference in understanding about what Council’s responsible for. We’ve historically seen some central government Resource Management Act changes lift the blanket protection rules so that’s something that we clearly would want to change but those amendments have actually set us back because they lift some of those protections.”

Now that the strategy is in place, what’s next?

“I would argue that the first cab off the rank would be looking at places where there’s very little canopy cover, eight percent is not enough,” says Mauro.

Bare cover tends to be more in the south and west of Auckland, he says.

“The idea is to look at specific areas that may be in deficit, what the strategy more than hints towards is when you’ve got disparity between areas and canopy cover, that’s kind of the basic metric for how healthy and how vast is your urban forest. When it’s quite different in different parts of Auckland the first step would be to understand that better and do something about it.”

There are three major strategies in the plan:

  • Protecting our trees

  • Growing more trees

  • What’s the status of our trees and what’s their value?

“The idea is, unless we know where we’re going, we’re not going to get there.”