The Auckland Council will today decide what to do with the Waitakeres as the Dieback disease continues to ravage the magnificent Kauri that we felled many years ago to build our cities, and which are now trying to rejuvenate – but in the Waitaks, it feels like the horse has bolted.

From my house I can look out across the valley towards Karekare and I can see pockets of Kauri browning and dieing from this fungal disease which right now has no cure.  It’s far-reaching – Dieback has spread from the Bay of Plenty to the Far North.

The disease has more then doubled in the Waitaks in the five years from 2011 to 2016.  Kauri, some suggest is facing extinction. At best it is now a severely threatened species.

It's spread via the soil. And once a tree is infected, it spreads from tree to tree through the entwined roots.

The option being considered by the Council is to shut the Waitaks, but how do you shut down a 16,000 hectare park? There are so many entry points. It would be impossible to police.  A million people visit the Waitaks every year. A million.  The Hillary Trail snakes its way through the park. It's a tourist mecca but it's also a sanctuary of calm and beauty for Aucklanders. They leave behind the congested, bustling city, jump in their cars and escape to the Waitaks for a bit of escapism and time to think. I'm sure the Park is where countless people go when they need a mental health break.

And it's also marketed internationally as a tourist destination. Foreigners flock to the many famous beaches on the edge of the Waitakeres. Karekare where The Piano was filmed. Piha for its big surf, its buzz and its beauty. Bethells for its magical coastline and its huge sand dunes. When I run in the weekends early in the morning, I see blurry-eyed Freedom campers brewing coffee and from time to time I've picked up young women who are hitchiking their way out to Piha -- French, Argentinian, English, American, Dutch. You name it. The Waitakeres is where they want to go.

Quite how you ring-fence 16,000 hectares with "Do Not Enter" signs....well, I just don't think that's feasible.

There are areas where there are no Kauri. They tend to grow in concentrated pods. If anything, the Council could cordon off those areas and keep the rest of the Park open, but even so, again, how do you police it?

But while Dieback is front-of-mind at the moment, there are other Conservation issues that are causing great concern too. Look at Myrtle Rust. And what plants are in the Myrtle family? Our majestic Pohutakawa, Rata and Manuka too. Think about our commercial Manuka honey industry for a moment. What if Myrtle Rust takes hold? It’s already been confirmed in 134 sites.

So what are we doing? Are we taking these issues seriously? We’ve known about Dieback for some years and we’ve done little to combat it. A bit of research, but no outcome.  And no cure.  Have we responded with urgency to the emergence of these diseases? Have we done everything we can to protect some of our most famous species? I think the answer to that is pretty obvious.

The horse has bolted in the Waitaks and at great cost. Closing the park when there's still no cure for Dieback will achieve nothing. But it should serve as a catalyst to all of us that Conservation must be a priority in New Zealand, and if we fail to acknowledge that, it will come at great peril to our country and our economy.