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Jennifer Sandison skimped, saved, and “sacrificed a lot” to climb the property ladder.
When he finally found his home, he fell in love with a “lush” kōwhai tree laden with tūī on the front berm, even burying his 12-year-old daughter’s placenta underneath it, now that the home was finally permanent.
On Friday, he returned home from a school trip to the beach and found that the tree, which is located on council grounds, had been cut down.
“We had a great day, until I came home to see my tree homicide.”
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Andrew Warner / LDR
The stump of the kōwhai tree.
On Tuesday, Rotorua Lakes Council sports, recreation and environment manager Rob Pitkethley said the tree had a structural defect, but that the council was now considering reviewing its processes for communicating with the public about tree removal. .
Sandison told Local Democracy Reporting that he felt as if he had been “robbed” when he saw that the tree was missing.
He called the Rotorua Lakes Council immediately for an explanation and also reached out to Mayor Steve Chadwick.
“It pissed me off, they didn’t contact me. I’m flabbergasted.
“It doesn’t seem right. I want to know what was the reason for cutting down a 30-year-old native tree.”
He said the only reason he could come up with cutting down the tree was if the tree was not safe, but “the stump is healthy from the start.”
“It was a pretty solid tree.”
She felt that the stump now could be a danger to cars or people, and the best outcome now would be to apologize and have the council change their process.
Sandison said the council had also pruned the tree just a week before cutting it down.
Sandison, a single mother of Mia, 12, said it was her son’s “first introduction to local government.”
“She’s gutted.”
On Tuesday, a member of the council staff responded to Sandison and told him there was an “impossible-to-prune structural failure in the tree,” he said.
She said the council staff member had apologized that there had been no communication with her about the decision to remove the tree.
“They insist that they have done the right thing.”
Sandison said he believed the tree was healthy and still did not agree to its removal.
Neighbor Kirby Cass said her young children had loved seeing the tūī enjoying the kōwhai tree near Sandison’s property.
“I was surprised. If it had been my tree, I would have been disappointed.
“The problem is communication. I am sorry that the council did not communicate with [Sandison]. “
Pitkethley said trees in public areas needed to be removed due to decay or damage from time to time, for safety reasons.
He said the tree outside Sandison’s property had a cleft in the base that was a “structural defect that could not be pruned” and the other kōwhai that was removed was “badly deteriorated.”
The stump will be removed and a new kōwhai will be planted in its place during the fall planting season next year, Pitkethley said.
“Pruning was done before the moves due to the overlap of two work schedules. A team carried out scheduled maintenance on the street trees and pruned the trees along [the] Street.
“The kōwhai tree was cut down by a second team that is responsible for cutting down the trees.”
Pitkethley said it had not been “standard practice” for the council to notify residents of tree maintenance or removal unless it would affect access to properties or were a health and safety concern.
“However, we recognize that residents appreciate the natural character of their neighborhoods and are considering an improvement in the process to provide information to residents about the reasons for tree removal.”
In August, Tauranga city councilors voted unanimously to allow the removal of an avocado tree, believed to be at least 44 years old, from a suburban city berm.
In that case, the owners had proposed to remove the tree and needed to obtain consent from the resources to do so, triggering a public feedback process.
According to the Department of Conservation, three species of kōwhai are listed as “naturally rare.”
“This recognizes their restricted ranges and suggests some level of conservation monitoring to ensure they are not in decline.”
Other species, while still relatively common, have “suffered significant habitat loss through the clearing of forests for agriculture,” says the department’s website.
Native birds such as tūī, korimako, kākā and kererū benefit from kōwhai trees, he said.
Predator Free New Zealand and Forest and Bird Rotorua were asked for comment.
