How to get help from Auckland Council with tree related issues
If you are in urgent need of tree related information from Auckland Council because a protected tree is under attack ring (09) 301 0101.
Say “ Priority One” and request to speak to someone in Compliance and Enforcement or to a Heritage Arborist. A Priority One call requires an immediate response for an officer to visit the site.
Stay on the line until you get the response you require. Do not agree to have someone call you back (this may take days). Insist on speaking to the decision maker if the tree is in urgent danger. Make the staff find out who that is (it may be in Auckland Transport or Consents or Parks). Do not give up and do not get off the line.
Compliance and Enforcement can check on whether a resource consent has been granted for tree removal.
Remember: trees that are on public land (including street trees), in a riparian (along a waterway) or coastal strip, or in a Significant Ecological Area, or on the Scheduled Tree List (Schedule 10) are all protected and require resource consents from Council for any works or removal.
Trees on private land without any of these protections can be removed without consent.
If you want to search the Unitary Plan yourself to check if the trees are protected click here to find out how.
If you are on site and can safely get yourself between the tree and the arborists trying to remove it then do so and refuse to move until you have seen evidence in writing that they have consent to remove the tree. You may at least be able to make them stop work until they have acquired the correct paperwork or until you have established the facts from the Council. But do not put yourself and others at risk. Do not trespass on private land.
