Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area News

WRPS is concerned about the unexpected recent proliferation of minor dwellings within the Heritage Area.

Link to Submission Form

In the request for feedback on the review of the Regional Parks Management Plan (March 2022), WRPS emphasised the importance of prioritising the protection of the wilderness experience that the Waitakere Ranges provides. We believe this means a continuation of the exclusion of currently prohibited activities, such as mountain biking, horse riding, and motorised sports, as well as a complete rejection of the suggested 1b classification of the parkland.

The rejection of the 1b classification supports the continuance of the Waitakere Ranges being classified in a way that offers the highest level of protection.

For it to remain as Category 1a recognises its heritage, ecological, wilderness and recreational values, and its national significance under the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Act, passed into law by Parliament in 2008.

WRPS has a concern around how to manage the influx of visitors in coming years sustainably, and that tourists are being funnelled through particular areas. The provision of some form of public transport service would negate the need to develop car parks, as well as play a role in directing visitors more easily to sites better able to cope with large numbers and therefore protecting more sensitive locations. 

The review of the RPMP should revisit the direction of works to protect kauri in the park. The track upgrading should be embedded in a policy context that seeks to protect the values of the park, the natural features within it and the visitor experience. Any proposals to close tracks permanently should be reviewed as part of this RPMP review. The heritage and history of individual tracks should be part of such a review. As the largest regional park (17,000 ha), the oldest regional park, the foundational park of the regional parks’ network, and as it is close to the most populated part of the Auckland region, the Waitākere Ranges

parkland deserves special attention and faces particular challenges from kauri dieback and over-use.  The Waitākere Ranges being a place of natural heritage should remain as a core value in the RPMP. It is an invaluable place of biodiversity and must be protected and maintained.

WRPS feels strongly that Muriwai Beach should be closed to recreational vehicle use. This view is due to environmental concerns of the area which are hugely impacted by vehicle use; the toheroa population hasn’t recovered, and the sand dunes ecosystems in the area are ranked as endangered. There are 12 threatened and at-risk species within the Muriwai Regional Park, including the rare Muriwai gecko and the white-fronted tern. The increased fire risk indicated and the safety concerns for children, horse riders, and the drivers of vehicles themselves are also serious concerns which must be prioritised.

The Climate Change Commission’s draft advice – He Pou a Rangi – is a comprehensive, optimistic and ambitious new plan. We agree that current Government policies do not put Aotearoa on the right track to reach 2050 targets, and there is a need for change. We acknowledge and commend the focus on decarbonisation of industries, rather than increasing reliance on (plantation) forestry. The general recommendations and proposals of the CCC’s advice are supported.

However there is not enough emphasis on the importance of permanent native forests, or the mitigation of drought and fire risks. WRPS feels strongly about the need to include public transport in areas such as the WRHA to reduce the negative impacts of increasing numbers of vehicles visiting and we would also like to see increased funding for caring for our native forestry, including more research into pest pathogens such as Kauri dieback, pest animal control for pigs, deer, goats possums, and an increase in urban tree planting.

WRPS supports the key outcome areas for responding to climate change: Coastal investment and developing coastal management plans to respond to coastal erosion; Increasing permanent native forests; Increasing the numbers of street trees in urban areas, especially native trees; Address the issues of toxic burden from closed landfills (however it is inadequate to only protect 4 of the council’s 85 closed coastal landfills). WRPS supports the extension as well as an increase in the Natural Environment Targeted Rate and Water Quality Targeted Rate. We feel it is needed to have specific plans to clean up important West coast areas such as lagoons and that appropriate management includes the serious involvement of Tangata Whenua. WRPS calls for increased funding and continued active management of pest and threatened species to be able to maintain and increase our native forests.

In June 2021 Watercare’s application to clear 3.5 hectares of pristine bush in the Waima located in the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area was granted. Of the submissions made in response to the 2019 application 468 were against, 20 were in support, and 8 were neutral.

WRPS was extremely concerned and had submitted extensively in opposition to this application being granted. Concerns included: that this application will generate significant and unwarranted adverse effects on the environment, will be contrary to the sustainable management of natural and physical resources, is inconsistent with the purposes and principles in Part 2 of the Resource Management Act 1991.

The application will have significant adverse effects on extensive areas of high quality and ecologically valuable native bush, birdlife and other flora and fauna. WRPS is concerned that the mitigation proposed will not adequately address the adverse effects that will be generated by the proposal.

There were subsequent appeals to the consent of the application showing the proposal could be breaching the Biosecurity Acet, as well as breaching the Waitakere Ranges rahui, Te Kawerau a Maki’s tikanga, as well as damaging the mauri of the environment downstream of the works.

Currently the Te Henga quarry park (or Waitipu-Waitākere Quarry Park ) is closed. In April-May this year (2022) there was feedback requested on how to go about restoring the land and reopening the site as a local park for public use.

WRPS strongly supports developing the water catchment area within the quarry park as a wetland for the following reasons:

• There are two semi-connected wetlands within the Waitipu-Waitākere Quarry Park at the head of Te Henga valley. A short section of Waitipu Stream flows through them.
• Te Henga is one of the most significant natural wetlands in Tāmaki Makaurau, supporting further health and extension of it makes absolute sense, and the restoration of the Waitipu-Waitākere Quarry Park/Te Henga Quarry Park is an opportunity to do that.
• More wetland area would provide a valuable function in filtering out sediment from the stream as it flows downstream to Waitākere River, Te Henga wetland, and onto Te Henga beach.
• The wetlands are dominated by raupō. The two pools within the quarry have varying amounts of raupō-dominated wetland vegetation on the edges.
• Raupō has a regional IUCN threat status of endangered.
• Raupō reedlands and wetland habitat supports a diverse range of native birds including: pāteke (brown teal), mātātā (fernbird), Koitareke (marsh crake), pūweto (spotless crake), moiweka (banded rail), kāhu (harrier), matuku-hūrepo (Australasian bittern).
• Matuku-hūrepo are under threat of extinction due to the extensive loss of their wetland habitat and ongoing pressures such as predation. Their national population has sharply declined. This species is now ranked as Nationally Critical (the same threat level as kākāpō).
• WRPS strongly supports considering the Waitākere Stream catchment as a whole. This principle supports wetland development.
• WRPS strongly supports ongoing weed and pest control and monitoring.

Located within the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park, The Ark is a collaborative project between Forest & Bird and Auckland Council, supported by local mana whenua Te Kawerau ā Maki.

With 400 volunteers it protects/caretakes for 2270 hectares monitoring wildlife, engaging in predator control and research, and has to date set 554 traps and manages 4785 bait stations.

The concept for Ark in the Park started with a member of Forest and Bird’s Waitākere Branch in early 1999.

The Waitākere Ranges Protection Society was invited to be involved and a steering committee was set up in May of 1999. This aimed to further the concept of an “open sanctuary” where, with increased predator control and targeted weed control, the ecology of the Waitākere Ranges would be restored and species that had been lost would be reintroduced to the ecosystem. The concept of the “Ark in the Park” within regional parkland was developed, in collaboration with the former Auckland Regional Council and others.

The Ark in the Park aim is to restore functioning native ecosystems through pest control and reintroduction of native animals and plants lost from the Waitākere Ranges. Auckland Council’s possum control has allowed the forest vegetation to recover, but restoration of many of the “lost” species cannot happen unless we bring them back, and protect them with ongoing intensive pest control (especially for rats and mustelids). So far toutouwai/robin and kōkako have been successfully returned.

Unlike many other “mainland island” projects, Ark in the Park does not have a predator proof fence – instead, ongoing pest control by our volunteers and neighbours keeps predator numbers low enough to allow survival and breeding of re-introduced as well as original native birds and other biodiversity

Having no boundary fence has allowed the expansion of predator control work without barriers, and follow native wildlife populations as they establish territories in newly protected habitats.

Predator control within the Ark must be continuous and ongoing. Introduced predators are kept to low levels with a grid of bait stations, a network of traps and ongoing vigilance.

This ongoing work allows existing populations of native wildlife such as plants, fungi, insects, frogs, bats and birds to recover. It also means we can safely return species that were once present in the Waitākere Ranges through our translocation programme. So far, toutouwai/North Island robins have been successfully reintroduced, and there is a growing population of North Island kōkako

2021 Waitakere Ranges Kauri Population Health Monitoring Survey

This is the third survey carried out by Auckland Council on the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park for kauri dieback disease.

Remote sensing was used to detect kauri trees >15m tall within the forest canopy of Te Wao Nui Tiriwa/ the Waitakere Ranges parkland. . It is unknown how many kauri shorter than 15 m are within the Waitakere Ranges as they were not easily detectable with remote sensing technologies available in 2020/21. The research surveyed a representative sample of 2140 trees, out of 68,420 identified within the forest. The soil beneath 761 of these trees were tested for P. agathidicida presence.

The baseline pathogen prevalence of P. agathidicida detection was 76/761 (10%) in soil samples, and kauri dieback symptoms in 16.5% of surveyed trees. The spatial distribution of P. agathidicida from the 761 soil sampled trees showed a greater density of P. agathidicida detections in the northern, central-western and southern borders of the study area. There was no detection of P. agathidicida in the central interior areas of the Park.

An interesting finding was that kauri seedlings and saplings were surviving in soils where P. agathidicida was confirmed. This study provides a consistent cohort of monitored trees that can be remeasured to understand change in disease and pathogen prevalence over time.

The results supported the precautionary approach taken since 2018 and continued measures to stop the spread of Phytophthora agathidicida.