KAURI DIE BACK

24 Aug

As you may have seen on tv here in New Zealand our native Kauri trees are being killed off by a disease in the roots caused by a microscopic fungus like organism called phytophthicida. Was this fungus always in the soil, so where did it come from and why does it effect the trees now?

I watched a documentry on the health of all forests and the scientists showed a whole eco system in and around the tree roots of all trees which helped with nutrition and the general well being of the trees. This micro climate was very suseptible to foriegn organisms.
Was the areas affected by the die back been used as a dumpimg ground for the deadly 1080 toxin? Has 1080 in some way caused the fungus to become toxic to the kauri or allowed the fungus to multiply to the extent it’s killing the kauri?

I know that 1080 has been used in a lot of our forests to kill possums but has it only been a recent addition to the kauri forests. Are the kauri less tolerant to deadly toxins than other trees?
Food for thought.

2 Replies to “KAURI DIE BACK

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *