‘I got really bored during the lockdown’: Whangaparāoa man sentenced for illegal tree felling – New Zealand Herald

So last month Judge Melinda Dickie of Auckland District Court sentenced him to 200 hours of community service.

“This is seriously offensive for a number of reasons,” she said in her recently released decision.

Durham had started a program of cutting and clearing, apparently to sell the wood for firewood and make some money.

He did not check that the felling and removal of vegetation was legal.

When he was advised that it was illegal and he should stop, he continued. He was made numerous requests to stop – all of which were ignored, Judge Dickie said.

Durham, who is representing himself, pleaded guilty to one count.

The ruling said he lives on Wade River Rd and is a “lifetime beneficiary” of the property owned and administered by the Public Trust.

This property above the Weiti Boating Club includes two dwellings, but most of them are covered with native vegetation including pōhutukawa, pūriri and deciduous coastal forest.

But in 2020 the council found extensive damage and felled trees in this special ecological zone.

Tōtara, mature pine and gum trees were felled, causing significant damage to the understory vegetation.

“There was a large stockpile of construction waste – wooden planks, planks, plastic pipes, paint cans and buckets – at the bottom of the slope near the driveway. Waste and construction materials were found in most of the site,” the decision says.

Durham was selling firewood on Facebook Marketplace.

Durham was seen four times between July 2021 and September of that year felling trees on the property and on neighboring council-controlled land.

A Forest & Bird employee also saw the activity.

The damage caused by Durham is estimated at 2,520 sq m or a quarter of a hectare of unapproved vegetation clearing and land disturbance.

However, council officers said the true extent of the damage was likely to be much greater than this.

Vegetation clearing and land disturbance have caused landslides and landslides that have caused large clods of soil to fall to the base of the slope.

Kahn said the adverse effects of the crime are significant and harmful, especially given the sensitive nature of the environment.

He argued that the court should pay particular attention to the harmful cumulative and potential effects of removing vegetation in a sensitive environment, particularly the greater risk of invasive species now taking over the area, the change in ecosystem type, and that the remaining vegetation is now more -susceptible to the influence of winds and temperature.

Durham did not provide any formal written statements, but said he was sorry for what happened and had since begun to clean up the land, the ruling noted.

Anne Gibson has been HeraldProperty editor for 24 years, writes books and covers property extensively here and abroad.