[In preparation for the climb, the team disinfected all its gear and had it blessed by a Maori elder. The equipment included a spectroradiometer, which provides readings from the tree canopy to detect types of bark, leaves, lichen and habitats for forest animals. Later, these readings can be checked from a drone to monitor the ecosystem and its health.]
By
Per Liljas
 |
|
Arborists Jeremy Miller
and Scott Forrest ensures the rope they will use to climb
New Zealand’s tallest
tree, Tāne Mahuta, is safely positioned.
(Per Liljas with
permission of Te Roroa)
|
WAIPOUA
FOREST, New Zealand — Two
arborists, chest-deep in underbrush, secured a rope slung over a branch in the
Waipoua Forest, close to the northern tip of New Zealand.
Scott Forrest pumped his fist. “Yeah, great
stuff,” he said. He recently won the world championship for tree climbing.
But the job this day was a special privilege.
He was about to ascend a 148-foot-tall,
2,000-year-old kauri tree known as Tane Mahuta, a tree so sacred to the
indigenous Maori people that even touching it is taboo.
The climb, carried out in late August, was a
matter of urgency — and part of a growing collaboration among the local Maori
tribe Te Roroa, arborists and researchers.
The goal is to prevent Tane Mahuta and other
New Zealand kauri trees from succumbing to a deadly, fast-spreading rot called
kauri dieback.
In preparation for the climb, the team
disinfected all its gear and had it blessed by a Maori elder. The equipment
included a spectroradiometer, which provides readings from the tree canopy to
detect types of bark, leaves, lichen and habitats for forest animals. Later,
these readings can be checked from a drone to monitor the ecosystem and its
health.
“That would be extremely useful, considering
how large our forest is,” said Taoho Patuawa, the Te Roroa’s science adviser.
Tane Mahuta — with a massive bone-colored
trunk and crown of tangled branches — is named after the Maori god of the
forest, who separates his earth mother and sky father from an embrace and
thereby lets light into the world.
Early detection of kauri dieback is key. Once
a tree shows visible symptoms, it is already doomed. This means a loss for the
forest at large because the kauri is called a “foundation species” that shapes
the ecosystem around it.
The disease is caused by a water mold,
phytophthora, literally “plant destroyer,” which leaches plants of their
nutrients and has wreaked havoc around the world.
In 1845, it ravaged Irish potato crops,
causing a devastating famine. In California, it is responsible for the plague
known as sudden oak death. It has destroyed heathlands in Britain and cash
crops across Africa. And in Australia, where 40 percent of the country’s native
plants are infected, it has been called a “biological bulldozer.”
Yet finding a way to battle the disease remains
elusive.
The dieback was first reported in New Zealand
in 1959. In the past decade, a unique strain of phytophthora has been
identified as targeting kauri. Last year, it was detected only 100 feet from
Tane Mahuta.
One pinhead-size speck of phytophthora can
travel for miles on a boot only to dislodge in a new patch of soil, propel
itself into a kauri root, then slowly eat its way in until nothing remains of
the mammoth except a pale skeleton, said Conrad Marsh, a Te Roroa tourism
ambassador, who assists and guides visitors at the Waipoua Forest.
Generations ago, this would have been less of
a problem. Robust ecosystems are less vulnerable to phytophthora, and the kauri
forests of New Zealand’s north had been thriving since the time of the
dinosaurs. However, European colonization led to more than 95 percent of kauri
forests being logged or burned.
Last year, the International Union for
Conservation of Nature downgraded to “threatened” the status of kauri — a
species that little over a century ago was seen as so plentiful there were
plans to make Australian streets with its logs.
“There’s an intergenerational sense of loss,”
said Snow Tane, a top official for the Te Roroa.
[Watch: ‘OK boomer’: New Zealand lawmaker chides older colleague over climate change]
The kauri is a treasure to his tribe,
figuring abundantly in its songs, prayers, chants and proverbs — but over the
past 150 years, the Te Roroa also saw their homes, holy sites and language
slowly disappear.
In the early 1900s, some scholars believed
neither kauri nor Maori would survive the century. Today, however, Maori
language and customs are widespread, and decades of court battles have led
several tribes to settle land disputes with the government. The Te Roroa
regained ownership of the Waipoua Forest and neighboring tracts in 2007.
“Now we’re back and we need to protect our
land,” Tane said.
Studies show New Zealand’s ecology is under
pressure. A government-ordered report released in April says several rare
ecosystems are on the brink of collapse.
Worries about kauri dieback had been growing
among a group of academics, environmentalists and bureaucrats for a decade. The
national response was widely viewed as inadequate, with little funding,
scattered ownership and researchers burning out.
Then a study in 2017 showed that the pathogen
had doubled its spread in Waitakere Ranges, a regional park in Auckland. This
led the local tribe, Te Kawerau a Maki, to place a cultural prohibition on
entering the forest. Outdoor enthusiasts went up in arms.
The hikers should understand that we’re their
landlords. We take a 100- or 1,000-year perspective, and right now this forest
needs to rest,” said Robin Taua-Gordon, the tribe’s heritage and environment
trust officer.
That has not yet been the decision in Waipoua
Forest — even though motion-triggered cameras have shown several people walking
up to kauri for hugs and selfies. (Ironically because they often want to show
sympathy for the sick giants.)
The Te Roroa and the Conservation Department,
in collaboration with scientists and arborists, have responded by renovating
the boardwalk, beefing up the boot-cleaning station at the entrance and
increasing the hours attended by tourist ambassadors.
The tribe is also replacing commercial
plantations with native trees, and works closely with researchers, artists and
educators to increase and spread knowledge about and interest in the forest.
“For us, it’s all about being a good
ancestor,” science adviser Patuawa said. “That’s what we’re here to do, and
that’s what we can do.”
Read more
