The Local - Mt VictoriaHow dangerous is our Town Belt? Jane O’Loughlin tries to find out.
Mt Vic locals are avoiding the Town Belt when it’s windy, due to the danger of falling trees.
President of the Mt Victoria Residents’ Association, Ellen Blake, also volunteers in the local native planting group. She says planters have seen a few big branches come down.
“They are not to be trifled with, yet predicting which ones are vulnerable is difficult. It is easy to spot broken, hanging branches and get them removed by council. Trickier to see which trees will fall and it really does seem to depend on the way the wind catches them.”
Another resident who has also helped plant native trees in the Town Belt for many years is Elizabeth Street resident David Lee. He says the exotic trees on Mt Victoria are mainly North American conifers that are shallow rooted and being over 100 years old have a high risk of falling over in a storm.
Lee says he would never go into the Town Belt in when winds are strong, and suggested the council could put up signs at entrance ways warning walkers and cyclists about risk. Longer term he would like to see the older trees removed.
“I would love to see a massive removal of the conifers on Mt Vic and having them replaced them with longer living, strong wind-evolved natives, as was done with Ahumairangi (Tinakori Hill).”
John Scott and Kay Goodyear have lived on Scarborough Terrace for 21 years, in a house that backs onto the town belt.
In that time, they have seen several large trees come down, and many large branches.
They’ve done their trigonometry calculations to see if they are at risk.
“If one fell over it might touch the house,” Scott says.
They’ve observed that trees tend to fall in line with the prevailing northerly, which they hope will keep them safe. The council has removed branches and trees near houses and tracks, which also helps. But there’s no doubt the old trees pose a risk.
“We don’t go up there in the Town Belt on a windy day,” says John. “There’s an element of danger attached to that. After a big wind, quite significant branches will fall off.”
However, Scott is philosophical. “The chance of it happening is slight compared to other things.”
In February, the council voted to allow an additional $500,000 to this year’s budget for hazardous trees works.
Council Geordie Rogers said extra funding was needed for dangerous tree remediation due to climate change exacerbating the number of extreme weather events.
“The town belt is one of Wellington’s biggest draw cards and we need to be doing what we can to make sure it continues to be a safe place for Wellingtonians and visitors.
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