A fire torched 650 hectares of the Port Hills and forced about 100 households to evacuate in February. Photo: RNZ/Samantha Gee
A resident of Christchurch's Port Hills wants councillors to keep pushing for rule changes so they can stop pine trees being replanted in the fire-prone area.
Dominique Leeming has fled her home twice in seven years due to wildfires and says locals want more native trees on the hills.
The government rejected territorial authorities' bid for the power to review existing forestry consents.
In February, an inferno torched 650 hectares of the Port Hills and forced about 100 households to evacuate, almost seven years to the day since a devastating 2017 blaze on the same hills.
Leeming had to evacuate both times, and said she had seen first-hand the flammability of pine trees.
"Both fires got pretty close to our home, we're fortunate the fire-fighters saved it both times. It's really visible living here you can see where the native plants are, the fire doesn't burn them anywhere near as much as it does the pine trees," she said.
She felt strongly that the area should not be replanted with pines.
Port Hills resident Dominique Leeming Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Leeming said neighbours met soon after February's fire and agreed they wanted more firebreaks and native trees
"It's going to be an ongoing problem, climate change is a thing, and I note too that the government has released its climate strategy, and one of those points is that they want nature-based solutions to address climate change and they want homes and communities better protected. Now is the opportunity to do that," she said.
Reducing fire risk on the Port Hills was on local leaders' minds too.
Christchurch and Selwyn mayors Phil Mauger and Sam Broughton, and representatives from Canterbury Regional Council, told Forestry Minister Todd McClay in a letter they wanted to be able to review and change existing forestry consents.
They said the rules let anyone with existing rights to a forestry plantation replace it if it was destroyed by fire - which led to pines being replanted after the 2017 fires.
Christchurch city councillor Sara Templeton said it was disappointing the government refused to make that change.
"There were concerns that after the first large fire in 2017 that pines were replanted and that meant by the time the more recent fires happened that the pines were catching fire again, and they clearly burn much more quickly and hotly than the native species, so people are really concerned.
"At the moment there's nothing we can do because it was an existing plantation, they are as a right allowed to replant. It's quite different to establishing a new one, which we would be able to control.
"It's clear that while pine plantations have been suitable in that area in the past, with the climate changing, with much hotter, dryer and windier summers on their way it really doesn't make sense to continue to plant pines in those areas, and it would be really good if we had the tools to make that change."
Templeton said without a rule change, the council should still try work with landowners.
"It might be that we're able to come to an arrangement where at least on the fringe of the property that we're able to do native species instead, or something like that," she said.
Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger hoped the council could work with the government to come to an agreement.
He said the council was also exploring other measures for the Port Hills.
"One thing we're looking at doing up there is getting lakes, ponds up the top of the hill so helicopters can get into water quicker. Because dragging water out of down say in the harbour, or out of ponds in Halswell, it takes a long time, it takes a lot of fuel, a lot of everything for the helicopters to go up and and down and extinguish the flames," he said.
"One of the things that came out of it last time is if we had some areas up there- and there are some ponds up there but not deep enough to put a monsoon bucket in- make them a bit deeper so that helicopters can haul the water up quickly."
Lincoln University Associate Professor Tim Curran, who studies plant flammability, said local leaders were right to be concerned about the fire hazard posed by pine plantations on the Port Hills.
"The Greater Christchurch area is one of the most fire-prone parts of New Zealand, so its climate produces the longest fire season in the country," he said.
"We need to be really thinking about the types of fuels we put in the landscape. If we go ahead and plant more pine plantations on the Port Hills it will increase fire hazard. It's in most cases going to produce more loads of burnable material... that material is generally going to be more flammable than many native forest species."
Conservationists had already been looking at tactical replanting of the Port Hills to lessen or prevent damaging fires.
In December, Summit Road Society secretary Marie Gray said they were one of many community groups committed to cloaking the hills in green and preserving wildlife.
But fires remained front of mind for planters.
"We're looking at 'green firebreaks'- planting low-flammable native species, or 'grass firebreaks', where you use short grass to basically slow a fire down," Gray said.
Forestry Minister Todd McClay said there was no need for a policy change because councils could already introduce local rules under the National Environment Standards for Commercial Forestry (NES-CF) to manage risks in relation to forestry.
"I have indicated I'm happy for MPI officials to work with the Councils, so they better understand the legislation and regulatory tools already available to them," he said.
"National consistency is important to support the forestry sector and ensure regulations are fit for purpose to strike the right balance between managing environmental impacts and supporting local economies."
