By PHILIP ENGLISH
Cattle destroying archaeological sites and causing erosion on Mt Eden will be removed this winter, but the mountain and Auckland's other volcanic features still face threats.
The Auckland City Council is being applauded for the steps it is taking to restore the summit of Mt Eden, which is visited by more than one million people a year.
Work on the summit to prevent further damage by tourists trampling the site, mountain bikers and grazing is being treated as urgent.
But there have been signals for years that the mountain was under pressure.
Following a report in 1999 on ways of protecting and enhancing the mountain, also known as Maungawhau, the council decided that remedial work on the summit was a priority.
Even before that, Auckland archaeologist Dr Susan Bulmer was calling for cattle to be removed from the mountain's slopes.
"We were trying to get the cows off way back in Mt Eden Borough Council days ... Nobody previously has really seriously listened and now they are. It's because they can see for themselves what damage has been done."
She said grazing was a solution to managing pasture on the mountain but volcanic cones and "raising meat do not go together very well."
Dr Bulmer, a member of the Maungawhau advisory committee, said the mountain was also under pressure from people and it might be time to consider whether tourist buses should continue to be allowed to the summit.
"We have a conflict between tourism and local use. We need to face this. We can't say that everybody can use it always and anyway they like because it is making a mess of things and that mess is going to get worse.
"People do not realise how amazing Mt Eden is. It is one of the great monuments of the pre-industrial world. It is fabulous. Like Stonehenge, it attracts people. But the public has had to be excluded from Stonehenge. They have to stand way outside it to see it now because public use has destabilised it."
Dr Bulmer said a way had to be found to cope with the problem on Mt Eden.
Cattle also graze on other volcanic cones in Auckland and have been grazing on the Otuataua stonefields at Mangere, recently opened to the public as a historic reserve.
There are few practical alternatives to cattle grazing to manage pasture on the cones, particularly if the pasture is kikuyu grass, which can threaten archaeological features. Sheep get stolen or mauled by dogs. Maintaining an army of weedeaters to keep grass down over hundreds of hectares would be costly.
One option might be to plant native grasses or other shrubby plants on the cones to discourage damage in sensitive areas.
The Auckland City Council plan for the summit of Mt Eden includes protecting the car park margins from further erosion and repairing the crater rim and crater access tracks.
The council has put aside $100,000 for the work, which will be subject to consultation with iwi and local groups. It will seek a resource consent for the work.
"There is absolute urgency," said Bill Christian, chairman of the council parks and recreation committee.
Meanwhile, the Auckland Volcanic Cones Society is continuing to push for the cones and special features of the Auckland volcanic field to be given national reserve status.
* The society is seeking members. It can be contacted on Auckland 522-4495.
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