A southern council has been criticised by one of its own for removing trees because of an airspace issue – only to replant the same variety at the site.
By Matthew Rosenberg for Local Democracy Reporting
Invercargill deputy mayor Grant Dermody raised concerns during a committee meeting this week, saying the strategy was “a little bit nonsensical" and only addressed risk for 30 years.
“We’ve removed, you know, pine trees and macrocarpas and we’ve put pine trees and macrocarpas back in,” he said, noting natives had also been replanted.
A report prepared for the meeting showed Invercargill City Council had acted on a 2023 request from Invercargill Airport to remove trees at Queens Park because they entered the airspace exclusion zone.
Dermody’s concerns about replanting were not addressed at the meeting, but council manager parks and recreation Caroline Rain has since said trees within protected flight paths would be managed according to aviation safety requirements.
"While there is always the possibility that some trees may need to be removed in the future, avoiding aviation conflict is one of the key considerations when replanting trees in flight path areas," Rain said.
"We also consider the trees’ suitability to the site, safety constraints and long-term resilience."
The deputy mayor’s comments were made during discussion on the council’s Tree Plan — a policy document created in 2020.
Dermody also called on the council to consider other elements in its plan, including trees impacting footpaths, trees impacting the water network, and the threat to road users.
“I think we need to think really seriously about why we would have large trees around our roading network, and I think that should be reflected in the tree plan as well,” he said.
Mayor Tom Campbell shared concerns about the risk of falling trees, having posted on social media last week about an empty car being hit by an elm tree at Otepuni Gardens.
The September 1 incident occurred just weeks after the last of about 70 trees was scheduled to be felled in the city’s town belt.
Removals in the town belt had been initiated after a large pine crashed onto Elles Rd during a severe wind event in October 2025, narrowly missing traffic.
“I think something that’s obviously on our minds, and I’m sure on the public mind, is the issue of public safety given the warnings that we’ve had from the trees opposite Mitre10, and also the tree that fell last week,” Campbell said at the meeting.
He also revealed council was working on a new risk inventory following the Tauranga landslide disaster, and called for trees to be included on that.
The council report noted the tree plan had been created after a “significant near miss on a public road”, and said data on 15,000 trees had been captured in the city.
The goal was to develop a network of diverse trees at different ages and stages, the report said.
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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