Kauri health survey Waitākere Ranges
A new kauri monitoring programme has been launched in the Waitakere Ranges.
Auckland Council workers are surveying healthy trees as part of their study into kauri dieback disease.
They are investigating the impacts of the disease on individual trees and the wider kauri population.
Auckland Council kauri dieback team manager Lisa Tolich said new remote sensing technology had given the council a good estimate of how many kauri trees spanned the ranges.
The team had drawn a sample of trees to survey.
“We are giving 3500 kauri in the Waitākere Ranges a full health check and will continue monitoring these specific trees for years to come,” Tolich said.
“The trees have been randomly selected from the overall population so field teams don’t know going in whether they’ll be assessing healthy or diseased trees.
“This is important because it means we can build a picture of what’s happening across the entire population – not just the areas where we know the pathogen is already present.”
Data collected will identify risks to tree health associated with the locations, environment and other factors such as changing climate.
Survey findings will help the council assess how well precautionary measures are working and if any adjustments are needed.
Funding for the monitoring programme comes from the Natural Environment Targeted Rate at an expected cost of between $650,000 and $700,000.
This includes the design and delivery of the Waitākere Ranges Surveillance programme between 2020-2022.
Environment and Climate Change Committee chair Richard Hills said the investment was another step towards helping protect and preserve kauri forests.
“Kauri dieback disease is unfortunately not going away and the more we can find out about the disease, through robust processes like our surveillance and monitoring programmes, the better placed we are to protect our native taonga now and for generations to come.”
Even Australians get it - so why not Kiwis???
“Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast, Australia’s power supply may well have buckled. But this time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages.
On Australia’s main grid last quarter, renewables and energy storage contributed more than 50% of supplied electricity for the first time, while wholesale power prices were more than 40% lower than a year earlier.
[…] shifting demand from gas and coal for power and petrol for cars is likely to deliver significantly lower energy bills for households.
Last quarter, wind generation was up almost 30%, grid solar 15% and grid-scale batteries almost tripled their output. Gas generation fell 27% to its lowest level for a quarter century, while coal fell 4.6% to its lowest quarterly level ever.
Gas has long been the most expensive way to produce power. Gas peaking plants tend to fire up only when supply struggles to meet demand and power prices soar. Less demand for gas has flowed through to lower wholesale prices.”
Full article: www.theguardian.com...
If even Australians see the benefit of solar - then why is NZ actively boycotting solar uptake? The increased line rental for electricity was done to make solar less competitive and prevent cost per kWh to rise even more than it did - and electricity costs are expected to rise even more. Especially as National favours gas - which is the most expensive form of generating electricity. Which in turn will accelerate Climate Change, as if New Zealand didn’t have enough problems with droughts, floods, slips, etc. already.
Poll: As a customer, what do you think about automation?
The Press investigates the growing reliance on your unpaid labour.
Automation (or the “unpaid shift”) is often described as efficient ... but it tends to benefit employers more than consumers.
We want to know: What do you think about automation?
Are you for, or against?
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9.3% For. Self-service is less frustrating and convenient.
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43.7% I want to be able to choose.
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47.1% Against. I want to deal with people.
Rock'in with Elvis by Mike Cole
The Memories of Elvis Fan Club invite you to our 1st Elvis Social for 2026. We are excited to have our own Mike Cole back at the Te Atatu RSA on Saturday 28th February at 7.30pm. Cost only $20pp. Tickets are on sale at the RSA or reserve through Jackie 0274901126. So lets see you with your dancing shoes on and that great smile as we start off 2026 with a bang.
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