The Kauri Rescue team recently returned to a property we know very well to help landowner Mike Stanley to reassess the health of the more than 300 kauri trees he treated with phosphite in 2019.
We were really pleased to see how stable the majority of the trees were over 6 years after treatment. There was lots of evidence of peeling away of old basal bleeds with healthy bark growing underneath. We found only a handful of trees that need to be re-treated, so that is very encouraging that the phosphite treatment is continuing to be effective after such a long time.
In the photo above you can clearly see the 3 horizontal paint pen marks above a patch of new bark on this kauri. These marks were placed when the tree was treated in December 2019. The lowest mark indicates the highest point of the basal bleed at the time of treatment. You can see that the old bleed has peeled off and only a small portion of it remains at the base of the tree under the marks. Healthy clean new bark has grown underneath since the tree was treated. By the next time we reassess this tree we expect that the entire bleed will have disappeared.
Huge thanks to our super Ambassador Guenter, plus Kauri Rescue staff Avril and Mels as well as our Trust Chair Mike Stanley for all their hard work on this property. The trees are doing really well.