Katikati youngster acts to protect trees

A young Katikati boy felt strongly that putting large screws into trees to hold up boundary rope at Park Road reserve was going against nature — so he did something about it.

Seven-year-old Sunny Daly was walking through the reserve in January with his mother Suzzane Daly when they noticed the perimeter barrier ropes stapled to about five of the trees sometime ago had caused them to scar and grow around the rope and large bolts.

Sunny, who goes to Katikati Primary School, was quite upset by this, so he wrote a full-page letter to Western Bay of Plenty District Council, and sent some photos. In his letter Sunny said he was complaining about five trees in Park Road reserve that have screws in them to hold the boundary rope up.

"I think this is against nature's law! I suggest you put in more posts and take the screws and the rope out of the trees."

Suzzane also confirmed to Council that the letter was genuine and asked them to "please take it seriously".

About a month later a man from Council rang to say they were impressed by Sunny's letter and were sending out some workers to investigate.

After about five months Sunny and Suzzane were delighted to see that new posts have been put in and the rope is no longer attached directly to the trees.

"This was a great instance of a young lad coming to us with a concern that he wanted fixed," said Council's reserves and facilities manager, Peter Watson. "Our reserves officer Wayne Alchorne had conversations with Sunny and his mum and took action to remedy the situation with a rope fence that not only protects the tree, but removes any further damage to its trunk.

"We thank Sunny for drawing our attention to this — and we admire his empathy for nature. Maybe he will be a reserves officer one day."

Sunny Daly points to rope screwed to a tree in Park Road reserve causing scarring.
The rope embedded in the tree trunk.
New posts have been put in in to hold up the rope fence rather than using the trees.