A steel barrier has been erected around the reserve at the Northern end of Bow St, Raglan. The reserve next to the Opotoru Estuary has a memorial to Raglan’s early missionaries. A number of Norfolk pines dominate the area. I asked Waikato District Council if they knew who had put the barrier up, why there weren’t any signs on the barrier and what was the barrier for?
Tim Harty, General Manager, Service Delivery: “The barrier is in place around the trees and memorial temporarily and as a precautionary measure during this year’s ‘mast season’. This year there is an abundance of cones on Norfolk Island pines across the country. We are monitoring these ones at Raglan. Signage will be up shortly. This signage and the barrier will be in place until the mast season is over.”
Although Mr Harty didn’t explain what a mast season was, arborist Philip Lodge from Tauranga City Council recently said, “Some of the city’s Norfolk pine trees are coning up in preparation for a bit of a mating season, but there’s little danger from the large soccer ball sized cones growing on some city trees. The cones do not fall, usually they disintegrate and break up. With all things with trees anything has the potential to snap off and fall down, whether it’s a branch, a cone or the whole tree.”