By Tristram Clayton
The government has taken the axe to laws protecting trees and environmental groups are shocked.
Under a last-minute law change passed under urgency last night, large trees will be able to be pruned without council permission from October 1.
We may now be on the verge of a chainsaw massacre.
"We'll probably see an increase in sales of chainsaws probably also people coming in getting in to sharpening and servicing so there will probably be a marked increase," says chainsaw retailer Adam McMaster.
"There'll be a lot of people who'll try and do stuff themselves, and there'll be a lot of damage to property and even people hurting themselves," says Matt Smith of Oakwood Treecare.
Many landowners say the change to the Resource Management Act is long overdue.
"It means that you can keep your own property under control and you don't have to worry about the government and the neighbours and everybody else getting in the game of telling you what you can do on your own property," says Bryony Hurden.
The current rules vary from council to council.
In Auckland city, which has some of the strictest controls, landowners must have consent to trim or fell any native tree over 6m tall or with a girth greater than 60cm. For exotic trees it's 8m tall or 80cm around.
In October the rules for pruning will be scrapped and some professional arborists say that will lead to tree "carnage".
"We're getting calls already from people saying 'oh great from the first of October we can chop down our tree'" says Stacy Colyer of Greenscene Limited.
Colyer says the law change's biggest problem is that it doesn't define "pruning".
"How low could they go?," says Colyer. "Well is trimming down to ground level - or is that considered trimming?
"It could mean people could top their trees and topping is a very, very bad practice."
But Environment Minister Nick Smith says requiring resource consent to trim a tree is silly and that the changes will free up valuable council resources.
But he does have a warning for anyone preparing to take advantage of the new rules - if you're too heavy handed with your pruning, you will be prosecuted.
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