Tree cover in Christchurch has dropped to just under 14 percent, the lowest of Aotearoa's three main centres.
Christchurch. Photo: 123RF
Survey results just released by the Christchurch City Council show the city now has 13.56 percent tree cover, compared with 30 percent in Wellington and 18 percent in Auckland.
This is down from 16 percent in the last survey carried out in 2015/16.
Christchurch ecologist Colin Meurk told Afternoons that Christchurch did need to do better, but much of the decline was within council-owned pine forests, which had been or would be replanted.
The survey also does not cover the Banks Peninsula district, which Meurk said had about 18 percent tree cover.
"There is a huge amount of regenerating forest that has been planted over the last 30 years, which didn't quite make the cut-off of 3.5 metres for the survey.
"This will be blossoming over the next decades just as the original colonial tree cover started 170 years ago has and is now mature canopy trees, some of it now reaching the end of its life. There is a new generation of - particularly indigenous - tree cover which will be emerging in the foreseeable future."
Meurk said because Christchurch was very flat, there was very little undeveloped areas, and the areas remaining were often wetlands.
In hilly cities, land that could not be developed was often left in bush with tree cover, he said.
Auckland had a goal of 30 percent tree cover, and Christchurch should have the same goal, he said.
The figures also show a large difference in tree cover in different parts of the city, with 28 percent coverage in the Coastal area, 21 percent in Cashmere, 19 percent in Fendalton and only 9 percent in Linwood, and 7 percent in Hornby.
