Protecting taonga tree species from myrtle rust

It’s been four years since myrtle rust is believed to have blown to our shores from Australia.

1NEWS journalists  Kate Nicol-Williams and Isobel Prasad recently visited the East Cape to see the devastation the plant pathogen is having on myrtle tree species.

Ngāti Porou is sounding the alarm for greater action from the Government to protect an important part of Te Ao Māori and their local economy before it’s too late.

Te Araroa is home to idyllic coastlines, deep valleys of bush, a laid-back way of life and now the country’s first reported mature tree deaths from myrtle rust. Ngāti Porou iwi member and sole Department of Conservation East Cape ranger Graeme Atkins made the discovery last year, saying the speed with which ramarama trees had been overcome by the disease shocked him.

Te Waha o Rerekohu is believed to be the oldest and largest pōhutukawa tree in New Zealand. There’s concern over sacred trees like this becoming infected.

“I was hoping that we'd get a decade or so of collecting seeds that weren't infected with myrtle rust but three years ago my whole world changed basically and so it's a real hollow feeling to know that’s another nail in our ngahere's (forest’s) coffin,” he told 1 News.

The disease spreads through the wind, attacking trees in the myrtle family including pōhutukawa, rātā and mānuka. In Te Araroa Mr Atkins has found infected ramarama, climbing rata, rohutu and pōhutukawa. He’s also concerned about how the loss of myrtle species will affect the wider ecosystem. “There's mosses, lichen, native orchids, ferns and they're only on the ramarama and so I don't know what's going to happen with them now that there's no more ramarama,” he says.

Infected pōhutukawa near Lottin Point on the East Cape.

Mr Atkins predicts ramarama will one day disappear from Gisborne all around the coast to Opōtōki, as there have been sightings of the pathogen on trees throughout the area.

Ngāti Porou iwi member Tina Ngata says the infection is believed to be causing tree death faster in the East Cape than elsewhere because temperatures don’t drop enough in winter for the fungus to become dormant. “It has impacts for our maramataka (lunar calendar), it has impacts for our way of knowing and our way of being, for our whakatauki (wisdom). A lot of the species that are involved are part of our cultural narratives,” Ms Ngata says.

Mr Atkins and Ms Ngata have been training locals to be citizen scientists monitoring myrtle rust, but they say to ramp-up field-based experiments and myrtle rust surveillance, Government funding is required.

A Jobs for Nature funding application to create jobs for iwi to do this work is being assessed by the Department of Conservation.

Reproduced with permission of TVNZ. Read the rest of the story here.

LAA first reported on myrtle rust in March 2018 and you can find that story here.