Given their important landscape function, it is understandable that the fate of the Western Springs pines is frequently debated in Ponsonby News.
Back in about 2005 when I was Chair of the Western Bays Community Board, we received reports on the potential dangers of the ageing pines towering over 50m high and in some cases above neighbouring houses. The trees were then about 75-years-old and entering their senescent phase. Large branches can snap off during storms but not all fall to the ground immediately – some get hung up in the canopy of nearby trees, posing a danger to neighbours and users of the tracks below.
Sometimes a heavy branch can fall days or weeks later on a perfectly calm day. We considered options that would remove only the dangerous trees while retaining the sound ones but there seemed to be no safe or practical way to do that. In the event, we balanced off the competing issues and deferred taking action other than removing individual trees as they died.
Now that the trees are about 90-years-old, the decision cannot be delayed any longer. The issue is not about retaining the trees in perpetuity but how to safely remove and replace them.
Graeme Easte, former Western Bays Councillor & Community Board Chair