The best Northern Rata flowering in a decade has occurred this summer, however Forest and Bird are worried that this may not happen again due to the threat of possums and myrtle rust.
Newly released drone footage shows rich, red, heaving flowering of Norther Rata which dominates the forest skyline in Northland following seven years of pest control.
Forest and Bird are warning the trees survival is down to us because it's a favourite food of possums.
Forests across the country are continuing to collapse due to possums, Forest and Bird said in a statement.
"Native rain forest canopies should be lush greens but they greyness you see in the drone footage is from decades of possum attack," Dean Baigent-Mercer from Forest and Bird said.
"The flowering northern rātā has basically dodged a bullet thanks to pest control and is starting to recover. But in areas nearby without pest control the forest is slowly collapsing – just as any native forest is across the country without pest control is."
He said research shows possum-wrecked native forest canopies can take 20 years to recover.
"It's important to make the most of this year’s very heavy flowering of northern rātā because the trees will soon be producing an abundance of seed. If the seed doesn't find a place to germinate within weeks, the seed is dead," Mr Baigent-Mercer.
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