'Border controls needed at Auckland ferry terminals to stop kauri dieback'

Controls are needed to stop the spread of kauri dieback disease to Waiheke Island, says Forest and Bird. Photo / File

Border controls are needed at Auckland ferry terminals to stop the spread of kauri dieback disease to Waiheke Island, an ecological advocacy group says.

Forest and Bird Auckland regional manager Nick Beveridge said Auckland Council needed to take urgent action to stop the spread of the disease which has killed hundreds of the native trees across the city.

Waiheke is currently free of the disease but Beveridge said it may not stay that way without strict controls to make sure vehicles and shoes are free of mud before they embark on the 35-minute ferry trip.

"A million visitors a year travel to Waiheke, but the council still hasn't got effective border controls to stop kauri dieback reaching the island," Beveridge said.

"If we lose all the kauri on the mainland, Waiheke could become the only place where these beautiful trees survive."

The disease was first spotted on Great Barrier Island in the 1970s and had now infected about 20 per cent of the kauri in the Waitakere Ranges.

Cars and earthworks machinery could go straight from the Waitakere Ranges, where they may pick up infected soil, to the ferry without having the mud washed from them, he said.

Drivers and ferry companies are supposed to make sure vehicles are clean but there are no car cleaning facilities available at the wharves to make sure that is done.

"Auckland Council hasn't done anything to make sure people wash their cars or earthworks machinery before they drive onto the car ferry," Beveridge said.

An Auckland Council spokeswoman said the kauri dieback team had increased wharf inspections of barges, boats and other vehicular traffic heading to the island recently.

"Those inspections involve the dog team which has increased in numbers from 2-12 over the last year along with the number of biosecurity officers on the ground, all in an effort to keep Waiheke and the gulf islands pest, predator and pathogen free."

Hygiene stations were set up at the downtown Auckland and Waiheke passenger ferry terminals to stop people inadvertently carrying across infected soil on their shoes but nobody used them, he said.

"We need hygiene stations that people must walk through at the downtown Auckland passenger ferry terminal, before they go to Waiheke."

The council spokeswoman said in May the local board closed some tracks on the island to protect the kauri on them.

Beveridge also said pot plants and soil should not be allowed to be taken to the island unless if was from a certified supplier.

Auckland Council had drafted a Kauri Dieback Action Plan for Waiheke, but Beveridge said many of the goals were too vague and the deadlines too far away.

As part of that the council planned to install hygiene stations in "strategic locations" by December but it needed to happen sooner and there needed to be detail about where they would go, he said.

"The council needs to take action now to stop kauri dieback infecting Waiheke's kauri trees, before it's too late," he said.

"If we lose kauri, we lose the ecosystems that depend on kauri for their survival."