We can’t thank you enough!

We’ve had a number of funders and organisations supporting our work and enabling us to be more effective during 2025-26.

Huge thanks to you all for investing in keeping kauri healthy Auckland Council, Lotteries Grants Board, Watercare, Foundation North, Tiakina Kauri – Kauri Protection programme, Northland Regional Council, COGS and Away We Go.

It’s human nature to want to help protect kauri, believes Dr Ian Horner.
A leading plant pathologist in New Zealand, Ian helped set up the citizen science project Kauri Rescue, which uses science and community action to help save kauri trees from the deadly kauri dieback disease.
Ian says Kauri Rescue arms landowners with the knowledge and tools to identify symptoms, safely treat infected trees using phosphite injections, monitor tree health over time, and reduce the risk of spreading the disease on their property.
Now largely volunteer-driven, Kauri Rescue brings together scientists and landowners to protect kauri on private property. To date, the trust has helped safeguard more than 5,000 trees across more than 200 properties.

Waikato Regional Council have recently published an article about Ian’s treatment of a 1200 year old kauri tree in Long Bay, near Coromandel Town, which is infected with kauri dieback disease. You can read the full article here.

We spent a fantastic couple of days with the Te Uri o Hau Environs team recently. We are supporting them to help produce a phosphite treatment management plan for their maunga Pukekaroro in Kaiwaka. We had a very productive meeting with representatives from Northland Regional Council and the Department of Conservation to identify knowledge gaps and a way forward.

We also visited Kapehu Marae in the west of the rohe to discuss the kauri they are concerned about and make a plan for further assessment work. Great collaboration and it is inspiring to be supporting the iwi with their determination to improve the health of their kauri. Huge thanks to Tiakina Kauri – Kauri Protection programme for funding this work.

Graeme has lived in Waipu on this land his whole life and was delighted to be our second Northland landowner to receive a phosphite treatment kit so he can help his kauri improve their health. Huge thanks to Tiakina Kauri – Kauri Protection programme and Northland Regional Council for the funding to enable us to support landowners like Graeme in the north. We are contracting Gavin Clapperton to be our local contact and are hoping we can continue to expand this work next summer

We salute our science lead Dr Ian Horner who retired from his job at Bioeconomy Science Institute (formerly Plant & Food Research) after 40 years researching Phytophthora. Lucky for us Ian will be able to now spend more of his time on our kaupapa and we are really looking forward to the opportunities that will present. Huge thanks to Ian for all his work over so many years and we are excited about the future working with him.

Kauri Rescue has received a short term grant from Tiakina Kauri to cover the period to the end of June 2026 to expand our operations outside the Auckland Region.

We have been using it to offer treatment opportunities to landowners in Northland and to support our iwi partners Te Uri o Hau Environs to develop a phosphite treatment plan for their maunga at Pukekaroro in Kaiwaka. We are working on this project with the support of Northland Regional Council and the Department of Conservation to pool all the information available on the health of the kauri on the maunga.

It is really exciting to be able to work on a collaborative project like this to expand our work and enable effective application of treatment in such an important ngahere / forest over future years. Huge thanks to Tiakina Kauri and Northland Regional Council for the financial support.

The Kauri Rescue team enjoyed a stunning sunny winter morning planting kauri saplings with Te Kawerau ā Maki and friends.

It was such an honour to be invited along to help bring these kauri home to Te Piringa in the Cascades, Waitākere Ranges from where their seeds were gathered for the Healthy Trees, Healthy Futures research project at Scion.

It was great to see everyone and we look forward to watching these babies grow and thrive into a new generation of kauri at this special place.

Thanks to some funding from Northland Regional Council and Tiakina Kauri we have been able to offer support to landowners in Northland with kauri infected with kauri dieback disease for the first time.

Eileen was the first recipient of one of our phosphite treatment kits and she said “you have given me hope and lifted the despair I was feeling about my kauri having kauri dieback disease. Thank you for your help.”

Eileen got stuck in straight away and within a couple of weeks had completed the treatment for all her trees. Well done Eileen!

The Kauri Rescue team recently attended a well attended Kauri Ora hui in Whangarei hosted by Ngati Hine. Dr Ian Horner did a presentation giving an optimistic view of kauri dieback management and Mels took along the Kauri Rescue stall.

The team stayed overnight at the marae and very much enjoyed the hospitality, meeting everyone and hearing about all the projects being undertaken across Te Tai Tokerau to protect and enhance kauri health. Thanks to Ngati Hine for hosting and for the photo.