{"id":42191,"date":"2025-09-25T07:10:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T07:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/42191\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T07:10:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T07:10:04","slug":"auckland-residents-horrified-as-native-trees-cut-down-in-freemans-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/42191\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland residents \u2018horrified\u2019 as native trees cut down in Freemans Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

A number of residents were unhappy with the move.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s outrageous, I\u2019m really upset. Native trees being cut down, I\u2019m really sad, a lot of people are really sad,\u201d said Lynne, one of the 201 residents living at the complex.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose people that planted them have lived here all that time, they have cared for them. Who has complained about the trees being there? It\u2019s beyond me. We don\u2019t feel like we\u2019ve been consulted.<\/p>\n

\"AA mulcher at the housing complex in Freemans Bay where a number of trees have been removed. Photo \/ RNZ, Marika Khabazi<\/p>\n

\u201cOur body corporate fees have doubled just recently and they\u2019re cutting down trees… I\u2019m really angry to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another resident, Diane, felt the same way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look over there, it\u2019s bare,\u201d she pointed to a line of cherry trees recently planted across the driveway, a preview of what would soon replace the bush.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou turn around and it\u2019s beautiful, lovely huge umbrellas. It\u2019s part of our living space<\/a>. People can\u2019t believe what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart\u2019s broken. I just don\u2019t know why anyone else would want to cut them down,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"AA sign posted by one of the residents at the housing complex in objection to the tree felling. Photo \/ RNZ, Marika Khabazi<\/p>\n

One resident overlooking the scene displayed a handmade sign in their window that said: \u201cThis is f***ed\u201d.<\/p>\n

McBride has spent the past two weeks anticipating the arborists\u2019 arrival, unsure of when exactly his beloved trees would be removed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been pretty horrendous, I\u2019ve been getting up early in the morning anticipating them coming in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really horrendous seeing a big truck towing a mulcher, it\u2019s horrendous hearing the noise. Now, right now, I\u2019m watching as the first big trees are starting to come out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SomeSome of the felled trees that previously stood outside the Freemans Park housing complex. Photo \/ RNZ, Marika Khabazi<\/p>\n

McBride described the bush as a \u201cmicro urban forest<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe t\u012b kouka is just starting to flower, the number of native birds that would have come into those trees was going to be tremendous. The bird life, the sound of the birds, the whole ecosystem there has just been destroyed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the body corporate told RNZ the decision to remove the trees had come after two community meetings and \u201cextensive correspondence\u201d, but McBride claimed the committee had skipped out on a planned meeting.<\/p>\n

\"CabbageCabbage trees \/ t\u012b k\u014duka were among the tress removed from the complex. Photo \/ RNZ, Marika Khabazi<\/p>\n

\u201cThe body corp isn\u2019t listening. It has been missing in action over this. They were supposed to have a discussion with us and we would talk through what the issues are and see whether or not we can save a part of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPotentially there would have been some minor changes, some clearing up or cleaning up… But no, they refused to have the conversation with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The body corporate has declined to expand on its earlier comments.<\/p>\n

\u2013 RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A number of residents were unhappy with the move. \u201cIt\u2019s outrageous, I\u2019m really upset. Native trees being cut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[806,51,1561,3588,6097,37774,37773,37772,78,126,111,43,139,69,530,10419,37775],"class_list":{"0":"post-42191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-as","9":"tag-auckland","10":"tag-bay","11":"tag-cut","12":"tag-down","13":"tag-felix","14":"tag-freemans","15":"tag-horrified","16":"tag-in","17":"tag-native","18":"tag-new-zealand","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-residents","23":"tag-trees","24":"tag-walton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}