Local resident Malcolm Warnes was irritated to watch the situation worsening and no work undertaken to stop the ongoing erosion.
“Those 400-year-old trees are falling down because there has been nothing done for years by the people who are responsible for the care and guardianship of that forest.
“It is a precious gem that is slowly being destroyed, and I personally think that is entirely unacceptable,” Warnes said.
Scott Hammond/Stuff
This tōtara is undermined by ongoing riverbank erosion.
DOC was looking into the issue in 2018, as a result of flood events “over the last couple of years”, although local users of the forest say trees have been falling over for longer than that.