Under attack: The fight to protect taonga tree species from myrtle rust

Four years after myrtle rust is believed to have first blown to our shores from Australia, sparking a short-lived containment effort, 1 NEWS visited the East Cape to see the devastation the plant pathogen is having on myrtle tree species. Ngāti Porou is sounding the alarm for greater action from the Government to protect an important part of Te Ao Māori and their local economy before it’s too late.

By Kate Nicol-Williams and Isobel Prasad

Te Araroa is home to idyllic coastlines, deep valleys of bush, a laid-back way of life and now the country’s first reported mature tree deaths from myrtle rust.

Ngāti Porou iwi member and sole Department of Conservation East Cape ranger Graeme Atkins made the discovery last year, saying the speed with which ramarama trees had been overcome by the disease shocked him.

“I was hoping that we'd get a decade or so of collecting seeds that weren't infected with myrtle rust but three years ago my whole world changed basically and so it's a real hollow feeling to know that’s another nail in our ngahere's (forest’s) coffin,” he told 1 News.

The disease spreads through the wind, attacking trees in the myrtle family including pōhutukawa, rātā and mānuka.

In Te Araroa Mr Atkins has found infected ramarama, climbing rata, rohutu and pōhutukawa.

He’s also concerned about how the loss of myrtle species will affect the wider ecosystem.

“There's mosses, lichen, native orchids, ferns and they're only on the ramarama and so I don't know what's going to happen with them now that there's no more ramarama,” he says.

Mr Atkins predicts ramarama will one day disappear from Gisborne all around the coast to Opōtōki, as there have been sightings of the pathogen on trees throughout the area.

Ngāti Porou iwi member Tina Ngata says the infection is believed to be causing tree death faster in the East Cape than elsewhere because temperatures don’t drop enough in winter for the fungus to become dormant.

“It has impacts for our maramataka (lunar calendar), it has impacts for our way of knowing and our way of being, for our whakatauki (wisdom). A lot of the species that are involved are part of our cultural narratives,” Ms Ngata says.

Mr Atkins and Ms Ngata have been training locals to be citizen scientists monitoring myrtle rust, but they say to ramp-up field-based experiments and myrtle rust surveillance, Government funding is required.

A Jobs for Nature funding application to create jobs for iwi to do this work is being assessed by the Department of Conservation.

“We're front and centre in terms of the harm, front and centre in terms of the impacts, so we need to be front and centre in terms of the response and the resourcing as well,” Ms Ngata says.

“We've got a real opportunity here to be able to proactively avert what would be a serious ecological and economic and cultural and social issue by wrapping some support around the community who are ready to respond and willing to respond.”

Graeme Atkins says he hopes a funded project like this could lead to other iwi creating similar programmes.

He says the public can help too by checking their land for infections and reporting sightings of myrtle rust on the iNaturalist citizen science phone application.

“Because myrtle rust hasn't been in the media lately, and understandable with Covid dominating headlines for the last year, a lot of people seem to think that myrtle rust has gone away... that isn't the case and so to get more people involved in our communities, everybody's got a part to play in this,” he said.

Taonga trees facing threat

While ramarama are already being overcome by the pathogen, there’s concern among locals about what is at stake if sacred trees and economically valuable mānuka are infected.

Te Waha o Rerekohu is believed to be the oldest and largest pōhutukawa tree in Aotearoa.

“Those things may be true but they're really of little significance for us because this tree to us is tapu,” Ngāti Porou kaumātua Lloyd Lawson told 1 News.

The tree is named after local chief Rerekohu and is a symbol of the iwi’s long-standing authority and existence, he says.

“It’s too late to start thinking about it when the tree is infected.

“How do you replace an iconic tree like that, it’s something that people in this area can stand by and say, the man who leant his name to this tree is my tupuna, 13 or 14 generations back.”

Mr Lawson says he wants to see the Government put more investment into researching how significant trees can be protected from the fungus and how the pathogen can be killed. He supports the iwi funding application for further local monitoring.

Ngāti Porou kuia Te Raunikau Stainton says losing the tree if it did become infected with myrtle rust and succumb to the disease would significantly affect the iwi’s way of life, with karakia (prayer) held under the tree.

“Taonga, this is our taonga,” she says.

Mānuka is another indigenous myrtle plant that’s a major economic contributor for the East Cape.

Ngāti Porou iwi member Tina Ngata says the honey and oil industry provides opportunities for the wider community, with several hundred hapū (local Māori) employed.

“We send our children off to university off the back of mānuka income and we are able to stay at home on our ancestral lands," she says.

Tairāwhiti Pharmaceuticals managing director Mark Kerr estimates wholesale products and ingredients bring $15 million to the region annually.

While mānuka are currently rarely seen with infection in the field, Mr Kerr says myrtle rust has been on the radar of growers since the pathogen first arrived in Kerikeri.

"We know mānuka is special in this country and hopefully one of the things about its unique chemistry is that it will have some more resistance to it, but that’s hope,” Mr Kerr says.

Mr Kerr is calling for more consultation between the Government and local mānuka growers, to ensure clear information is passed on to those within the industry.

“We've talked about running some trials, but what we really need is some science input so that those trials produce some really good information.”

Last December, researchers identified a very low number of infected mānuka seed capsules after a myrtle rust outbreak on other trees in an Auckland field monitoring site.

Iwi trials provide hope

Graeme Atkins and Tina Ngata are testing how Te Araroa mānuka reacts to myrtle rust, by growing seedlings among the infected ramarama.

Mr Atkins says around two thirds of the 100 seedlings have so far shown resistance, providing some hope.

Plant and Food Research kairangahau (researcher) Alby Marsh and Scion field technician Roanne Sutherland have been visiting the site as part of their wider research project exploring potential iwi-led solutions to the pathogen.

The research is part of Ngā Rākau Taketake, a collaborative research project focusing on combatting kauri dieback and myrtle rust funded by $13.75 million from the Government.

“Some of our old mātauranga (Māori ideas) may assist us in overcoming the disease, so trialling some of those methodologies that may have been employed in the past and just maybe something as simple as spraying salt water to the leaves of the plants that provides a film or degree of protection.

“Over in Tauranga they believe their pōhutukawa around the bottom of the maunga is protected by the sea, so in Māoridom there are strong connections with different realms,” Mr Marsh says.

He says building relationships with iwi to work together on projects has been a hurdle to overcome.

“The new way for us is these long-term, endearing relationships with hapū around the country… so beyond the project and for the new projects that may come along.

“But it’s important to maintain that connection as well because at the end of the day we're all people and we need to be able to operate in a way that is.”

Mr Marsh hopes to continue working with Ngāti Porou to monitor different susceptible trees and trial how plants react when exposed to myrtle rust.