The trees were inside the Onekawa Te Mawhai regional park, which borders the beach. They were between Bryans Beach and the Ōhiwa Spit on the beach side of the park.
Harley said there were no houses in the area and whoever felled the trees would have intentionally accessed it by driving over the dunes.
The regional council was following leads to track down who was responsible.
It had also visited the site to assess the damage.
“From what we can see, a small slip had come down behind the trees and someone has probably assumed they were damaged or dead,” Harley said.
“However, the person has gone in and chopped down live trees and cleared the area.”
He described this as “deliberate” as they would have driven across the dunes, felled the trees and taken the wood.
Harley said pōhutukawa were nationally significant trees native to Aotearoa and legally protected in Ōpōtiki.
“As an organisation dedicated to the protection and restoration of the environment, this behaviour is really disappointing, particularly as these trees were part of a regional park that everyone is able to enjoy and benefit from.
“It will take some time for this part of the coastal forest to regenerate. Destroying them is not only detrimental to the ecological significance to the area, including the animal and bird life, but ruins it for generations to come.”
He said the felling had not been reported to police as it was a relatively small-scale event and the council’s current approach was education and awareness.
“That’s not to rule out taking any future incidents further.”
Kiri Gillespie is an assistant news director and a senior journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, specialising in local politics and city issues. She was a finalist for the Voyager Media Awards Regional Journalist of the Year in 2021.
