May 13, 2013
Government urged to keep up kauri research
Northland councils and tangata whenua are urging the government to keep funding research into the disease which is killing kauri.
Craig Brown from Northland Regional Council says the discovery of the pathogen causing kauri dieback within a few hundred metres of the iconic Tanemahuta in Waipoua Forest brings home the threat.
The government committed $4.4 million into research in 2009, but it doesn't want to spend any more.
Mr Brown says a delegation recently met with Nathan Guy, the Minister of Primary Industries, to push for a further $1 million a year for five years to complete the research.
He says while councils will do what they can to protect the trees, including building ramps and walkways around significant trees, closing areas, and pest control, the science is a government role.
Craig Brown says once the pathogen gets into a tree it is doomed, however large it is.
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