Ranger Howard Matthew DOC at the stump of a Matai tree that has been felled illegally near the Waihora Lagoon in the Pureora forest. Kelly Hodel /Waikato Times
By Jonah Franke, Stuff
After ancient native trees were chopped down on public land, a former conservation minister says DOC may need to limit access.
Pureora Forest Park’s centrality and accessibility has made it popular with illegal tree fellers, cannabis cultivators, poachers and fly tippers.
And after a recent incident where a 400-year-old rimu was among the affected trees, former conservation minister and Green Party MP Eugenie Sage told the Waikato Times that DOC may need to review vehicle access to the park if illegal felling continues.
“I think the department, in areas like Pureora, may need to review vehicle access and existing tracks and additional barriers. Which would be unfortunate, but there’s a lot at stake here with these forest giants, which are taonga.”
At a site near Kakaho campsite DOC investigations officer Matt Davis demonstrates where two mature rimu trees were illegally felled by loggers.
“The first one they chopped up for firewood, so that would have been trailered out,” he says.
Davis is referring to a rimu tree thought to be at least 400 years old and up to 20m tall.
The saw marks on the stump are indicative of somebody who is no stranger to tree felling.
Howard Matthew, a DOC biodiversity ranger and a veteran of the park says the rimu’s felling also leaves an ecological hole in the forest.
“It creates a hole and changes all the forest around it and even the tree when it’s down, naturally falling trees, it still has a lot of value to the forest. All the nutrients and everything, it’s all recycled,” Matthew says.
Nearby, another fallen rimu, albeit more established and taller at about 30m, was also discovered.
Fortunately, the poachers left it as a decoy to see if DOC would cotton on to the felling.
DOC staff managed to recover the trunk and return it to iwi.
Waihora Lagoon near the site of the fallen matai. Kelly Hodel /Waikato Times
Matt Andrews of Te Kotahitanga o Ngāti Tūwharetoa says that the fallen giant will be put to good use despite the unfortunate reason.
“Potentially we could use it for carving and panelling inside one of our marae. We did manage to pick up some of the branches of the rimu and korero there is to potentially use them for tokotoko (walking sticks).”
At another site further south and close to the Waihora Lagoon, DOC staff discovered a 25m matai felled for its timber, which it is thought will be used for furniture or construction.
The encampment, thought to be used by the loggers who felled the matai. Kelly Hodel /Waikato Times
The two sites, while similar, are thought to have been logged by separate groups.
Near the site of the fallen matai, a sophisticated encampment stands replete with rainwater plumbing, and a woodshed.
It is an open secret that parts of Pureora have in the past been used by criminal groups for cannabis cultivation.