Notable trees survey out now

Council wants to know what the community thinks about our current method of protecting trees in the Taupō District, and whether it is working well.

Currently the District Plan protects over 200 trees on both public and private land. There are two categories of trees we recognise – Notable Trees and Amenity Trees.

Notable Trees have higher protection under the plan than Amenity Trees. There are different rules that prevent pruning, removal and activities near Notable Trees (unless we grant consent for this). The rules for Amenity Trees apply to pruning and earthworks near the tree. Protected trees are not necessarily protected because they are native (other rules in our plan protect areas of native bush). In fact, the majority of our protected trees are poplars and pine trees. Trees are protected because of their cultural, heritage or amenity value to the landowner and/or community.

Most of these trees (195) are on Council land and 42 are on private land. Although some councils assess all trees across their district (public and private), we decided that protecting trees on private property really only works if the landowner is on board.

We are considering reviewing our protected tree rules. This is because there are issues with what is in the Plan currently, including:

• Lack of compliance with District Plan provisions (people removing, trimming or undertaking non-permitted activities near protected trees)
• Cost of compliance for council (and therefore ratepayers) – several infrastructure projects have been held up or required significant modification to comply with protected tree rules
• We have a low assessment score compared to other parts of New Zealand – so we protect trees that wouldn’t be protected in other places.

We have put together a survey to get an idea of what you think of our current approach. The survey is open now and closes on 28 January 2022. You can provide your feedback at: submissions.taupo.govt.nz.

We will consider feedback when the survey closes and decide on the next steps - and whether we review the Protected Tree rules as part of the wider District Plan work.

If you are interested in having a look at where the protected trees are, you can find them on our District Plan map: taupo.isoplan.co.nz/eplan.

If you have further questions, contact the District Plan Review team by emailing districtplan@taupo.govt.nz or calling 07 376 0899.